Parenting is difficult at any age. Parenting as a young adult comes with even more challenges. The Madison County Cooperative Extension Service offers a free parenting class for folks of all ages and stages of life. In this ten week class, parents learn strategies to combat the challenges of parenting the youth of today. An area of concern for younger parents was child and family nutrition. The Parenting Educator realized right away this needed to be addressed. She asked the Snap-Ed (Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program Education) Assistant to teach a three week course within her 10 week program. All students were taught My Plate, Knowing the Limits, Planning Meals, Reading Labels, Eating Better on a Budget, Keep Foods Safe, Breakfast Made Easy, Cooking is Healthy, Better Beverage Choices for Everybody and Feeding Every Little Body lessons.

The Assistant taught two sessions, involving 13 students, with improvement rates in all area over 50%. One class of six improved 100% in diet quality and the other class of seven showed 100% improvement in food safety. Both classes were taught in a classroom setting with hands-on activities and food demonstration during each class. One participant reported in the ending Food & Physical Activity Questionnaire that soda intake was down considerably and healthy food patterns were increased by half. He is also trying to like leftovers!