Marion County Extension office Expanded Food and Nutrition program assistant recently partnered with one of our local Elementary Schools. I was asked to come and teach the third grade class. I taught nutrition, the importance of reading nutritional labels and keeping food safe. I started my lesson by teaching about the food groups. I taught about the key nutrients that are in each of the food groups and why we need each one to be healthy. 

When I taught about the Nutrition Facts on the labels, I broke down what each one was that was listed on the label and why it is important to know those values. We also talked about what all is on the packaging of the products and to always look at the expiration dates. One student that I had really paid attention to the lesson and after my lesson she went home and looked at a lot of the items at her house and found some items that had expired dates. She told her Mom that they needed to be thrown away. She recently told me that she still looks at all the dates of foods before she eats them. Her Mom said it was because of the Expanded Food and Nutrition Program that has made her more aware of the labels and the expiration dates and that is a practice that they now instill at their home.