The staff from Fleming County Cooperative Extension Service visits the Senior Center several times each month. The average attendance at the center is 35 to 40 people each day depending on the weather and amount of sickness. The SNAP assistant has a regular visit on the fourth Monday of each month. It was during one of these visits that the Salt and Sodium lesson from the Healthy Choices Curriculum hit close to home for many of the participants. After the NEP assistant showed how much salt our bodies need to function on a daily basis, one tenth of a teaspoon, the group was shocked. They said they knew it wasn’t much but they had no ideal it was so little. The assistant handed out boxes or cans and the people were asked to find the salt that would be in a meal consisting of tuna-noodle skillet, green beans, corn muffin and vanilla pudding, over one half teaspoon was the final amount. The SNAP assistant then handed out more containers and a label reading lesson was given with the people finding the sodium content in each food. Some said it was hard to believe how much salt they were actually eating in one day’s time. Discussion was then lead by the SNAP assistant on how we can cut down on our salt intake with fresh fruit being passed out as an incentive to change our habits. With many of the participants saying they were going to be more aware of the amount of salt in the foods they eat this lesson was defiantly a success.

                                                                                                Submitted by:

                                                                                           Barbara Campbell

                                                                                      SNAP-Ed assistant

                                                                                             Fleming County