Success StoryLearning to Prepare Healthier Foods



Learning to Prepare Healthier Foods

Author: Rita Stewart

Planning Unit: Lincoln County CES

Major Program: Accessing Nutritious Foods (general)

Plan of Work: Making Healthy Lifestyle Choices & Accessing Nutritious Foods

Outcome: Intermediate Outcome

Easy access to unhealthy foods, increased stress , and limited opportunities for physical activity all create challenges and barriers for Kentucky families in making healthy lifestyle choices.  According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 11% of adults in Kentucky have diabetes and 34% of adults ages 19 years and over were obese in 2016.  29.8% of adults ages 18 years and over also reported no leisure-time exercise in the past month.  In order to empower participants to take better control of their own health, this Family and Consumer Sciences Agent has taught families to improve health and well-being by choosing a nutritious diet, increasing health literacy to help prevent chronic diseases, or participating in regular physical activity.  In doing so, this agent, along with four Champion Food Volunteers, taught nine  Lunch-n-Learn programs with 278 participants.  Participants watch as a recipe is demonstrated, taste the food prepared, and discuss how to safely prepare that food.  This agent, along with the four Champion Food Volunteers, is responsible for advertising, teaching, and evaluation of the program. Participants learned about making healthy food choices, purchasing nutritious foods in their community, preparing nutritious foods, and tasting those prepared recipes. One of our Champion Food Volunteers taught about fruits and vegetables like plantains, mangos, papayas, coconut, dragon fruit, golden kiwi, and many others.  The majority of participants reported making the foods at home after attending this program. Many participants have not tried many of the fruits and vegetables featured in the recipes.  They have learned much about food preparation, healthy food choices, accessing nutritious foods through farmers markets, and ways to make the featured recipes and foods work for their families.  Participants are always surprised to learn they like a food which they thought they disliked prior to coming to this program.  Consequently, they are choosing more nutritious foods, implementing healthier cooking methods, and planning more nutritious meals.  Other efforts related to this same emphasis included partnering with the public library and community churches to offer nutrition education classes to both youth and adults.  

 






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