The goal of our program is to improve the likelihood that persons eligible for Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) will make healthy food choices within a limited budget and choose a physically active lifestyle consistent with the current Dietary Guidelines for Americans. These actions can lead to improving chronic conditions in adults. Research shows chronic conditions such as obesity and diabetes are more prevalent in adults living below the federal poverty level in Oregon by 7% for obesity and 4% for diabetes as well as in rural areas by 4% more diabetic adults than their urban counterparts and 6% more obese adults (Oregon Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System (BRFSS), 2016). Moreover, in Central Oregon, the OSU SNAP-Ed program provided educational programming reaching under-served diverse audiences. In 2018, the contacts for this audience include 11,361 people that identified themselves as Latinx & 7,554 contacts with people that identified themselves as an American Indian or Alaskan Native (FFY 2018).
OSU Extension Nutrition Education Volunteer Program is a community-based volunteer program led by the OSU Extension Nutrition Education/SNAP-Ed Program. Trained volunteers from the county assist the Extension programs in expanding the reach to serve a greater number of SNAP-eligible residents in our communities. Central Oregon programming includes educating the public with evidenced-based information at emergency food pantries through recipe demonstrations utilizing the Oregon State University Food Hero social marketing campaign of healthy recipes. Volunteers also assist OSU Extension staff with after-school nutrition education programming, family hands-on nutrition classes, farmers markets & community events. Volunteers are required to participate in 6 hours of initial training that includes background check, civil rights learning module, food safety, food resource management, classroom management, and nutrition information according to the Dietary Guidelines for Americans. Continual research-based updates and training by faculty and staff occur monthly.
“During Sally's first recipe demonstration at a local WIC clinic, she connected with moms and their little ones with great tips for using leftovers and encouragement to try new foods and flavors.”
“Volunteer Cathy brought a calm and welcoming attitude to the busy lobby of a local food pantry. She would share her own stories to connect with clients and encourage them to consider how they could fit cooking into their lives.”
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- The purpose of this project is to have our trained volunteers along with the Food Hero website messaging provide tips and strategies to increase healthy food consumption in the target population. Actively engaged adults can adopt and focus on healthy strategies to decrease chronic diseases that include diabetes and obesity (Central Oregon Regional Health Improvement Plan, 2016-2019). The prevalence of diabetes has doubled over the past 20 years to 9% of all Oregon adults (Oregon Health Authority, 2015). The obesity rate for Jefferson County is over 40%, much above the state average with Crook County at 25.1% and Deschutes County just below the state average at almost 22% (Accessed from the Communities Reporter Tool on 1/13/18). Additional factors contributing to this health data include the poverty rates ranging from almost 14% to 20% in Central Oregon (US Census Bureau: Decennial Census (1990, 2000); American Community Survey (2005-09 forward)) and over 20% to 28% of our renting households spending half or more of their income on rent. The statistics depict the critical need to teach residents how to prepare healthy meals on a budget, how to shop with limited food dollars, and how to prepare a wide variety of fruits and vegetables for their families to enjoy is an approach in combating obesity.
- This project was implemented by Oregon State University-Cascades.
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The project attempted to:- Extend our nutrition education to SNAP-eligible adults at food pantries, community events, and other adult education events
- Increase food confidence in preparing healthy foods and recipes
Completed updates for the volunteer training curriculum and evaluation and creation of marketing plan and materials for trainings in English and Spanish
Research and implementation of an app for volunteers to sign up for demonstrations or event planning and development of social media marketing strategy (please see link to Central Oregon Daily Story)
New partnerships with two food pantries and delivery of two volunteer trainings
39 food pantry and WIC demonstrations and 17 public events delivered by volunteers
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- COVID-19 put a halt to five scheduled trainings and to date, four months of volunteer activity. However, we are currently in the process of creating a hybrid training model for volunteers. As soon as OSU Extension receives approval for face-to-face delivery, we have created small lesson for volunteers to deliver in the pantry setting.
- COVID-19 put a halt to five scheduled trainings and to date, four months of volunteer activity. However, we are currently in the process of creating a hybrid training model for volunteers. As soon as OSU Extension receives approval for face-to-face delivery, we have created small lesson for volunteers to deliver in the pantry setting.
2,898 adults and 543 children served to date by this project
The project is in progress and is approximately 51-75% complete