Author: Stephanie Caldwell
Planning Unit: McCracken County CES
Major Program: Nutrition and Food Systems General
Outcome: Long-Term Outcome
Over the course of seven weeks, with a total of 15 hours, the SNAP-Ed Assistant at the McCracken County Cooperative Extension Service partnered with Heath Middle School’s 21st Century students and parents. These families were chosen by the 21st century director to participate. This program, titled “Heath Dinner Club” was a successful program in which families cooked together and were educated on safe cooking practices. Lesson plans were implemented from the “Healthy Choices for Everybody” curriculum. “Healthy Choices for Every Body” is a nutrition education curriculum designed for teaching nutrition, cooking skills, food budgeting, and promoting physical activity to limited-resource audiences.
The SNAP-Ed Assistant began the program 7 weeks prior to December 3rd , 2019, a day known as Family & Consumer Sciences “Dine-In” Day. Through this FCS Day initiative, the American Association of Family & Consumer Sciences ask families to host a “Dine-in” meal with their families. The SNAP-Ed Assistant promoted this family day as well as hosted a family style meal with all families in the “Dinner Club” on December 5th, 2019. On this day, all participants reflected on how their eating habits and food decisions had consciously changed due to the education they acquired during the program. Data collected showed 64% of participants improved overall diet quality in just 7 short weeks. Additional data from participants is shown below:
75% ate red and orange vegetables more often each week
75% drank fewer regular sodas, teas, fruit drinks and sports drinks
75% used a meat thermometer more often
100% ate fruit more often each day
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