Growing concerns for food insecurity, rising food costs, food safety and consumer awareness of how their food is grown and processed has increased the number of community members seeking information on food preservation.  There is an abundance of information on social media concerning food preservation.  A lot of this information is not researched based or best safe practices, some of it is even unsafe and dangerous for consumers.  The majority of consumers report strong fears of using food preservation methods especially canning.

The Wayne County Family & Consumer Sciences program advertised researched based hands-on Food Preservation learning opportunities.  Newsletters, newspapers, radio, social media as well as word of mouth was used to promote these learning opportunities.  The main goal is to remove the fear of Home Food Preservation and replace the fear with confidence utilizing informed researched methods that are safe.

Sixty-eight adults participated in Food Preservation Workshops. Pressure Canning, Water Bath Canning, Freezer Basics, Dehydration of fruits and vegetables and jerky making utilizing dehydration were the main focus.  Kitchen safety, food safety, food storage, knife safety, budgeting, food and nutrition were also topics covered.  Participants engaged in a hands-on learning environment.  Twelve of fourteen participants had never pressure canned before. Nineteen of twenty-eight had never water bath canned before.  Ninety-eight percent of the participants reported strong fears of using food preservation methods.   All the participants reported replacing feelings of fear with confidence in utilizing learned skills.   All reported they felt good about feeding their families healthy home preserved foods.  All participants reported they would be using their new skills during the food preservation season.  One participant report, “I can’t wait to get home and do this!  I didn’t think I could do this but I can! I am so glad I took this class so I can feed my family better!”