Montco Nutrition Outreach!

Alesha Hall, CADCOM

This year marks Montgomery County Community Action Development Commission’s (CADCOM’s) fifth year providing nutrition education to the low-income population. Originally focused on network building, the program has evolved to concentrate on direct program delivery. This year, to reflect the new focus, the program has been renamed Montco Nutrition Outreach! This program is funded by the Pennsylvania Nutrition Education Program as part of the USDA’s Food Stamp Program. As the nutrition educator, I conduct or report on a variety of nutritional programs such as Simply Good Eating, Healthy Living, Summer Youth Nutrition Program and the Teen Parent Program. I also deliver nutrition education through newsletters and demonstration events to thirty emergency food sites, the Norristown Farmers’ Market and the Commodity Supplement Food Program.

Simply Good Eating is a six-week series program that teaches people how to make nutritious food choices on a tight budget. Topics of discussion include MyPyramid, calcium, fats, food labels, fiber and stretching the food dollar. Each lesson is reinforced with a recipe demonstration, and participants are encouraged to join in and help with preparation and cooking.

Barbara Myers, R.D., conducts Healthy Living, a ten-week series program she designed for adults and seniors. Along with studying different nutritional topics, clients receive education about physical activity. Healthy Living aims to educate clients about maintaining a healthy lifestyle as they grow older.

The Summer Youth Nutrition Program is offered during the summer to different youth camps that participate in the Summer Food Service Program. Run by Montgomery County Cooperative Extension, it teaches children the importance of fruits and vegetables. County Extension also teaches different after-school programs in Norristown and Pottstown. Children learn nutrition through interactive games, activities and food tasting.

Starting in October 2007, Montco Nutrition Outreach!will implement a new program—the Teen Parent Program. This program is an adaptation of Simply Good Eating that intends to teach teen mothers and teen expectant mothers the importance of nutrition during pregnancy and infancy. Teens learn how to cook nutritious meals, manage their food dollar by using other community resources and gain knowledge of healthy foods.

Montco Nutrition Outreach!uses other methods to deliver nutrition education to the community. Methods include a bi-monthly newsletter called Eat Smart distributed to emergency food pantries and a monthly newsletter, CSFP EXTRA, which targets seniors. Eat Smart discusses different nutrition information from the USDA’s vegetable of the month, through its SNAP program. The CSFP EXTRA newsletter is distributed with the Commodity Supplement Food Program packages. Both newsletters contain a recipe with the food that the clients receive.

At the Farmers’ Market in Norristown, seniors can come by to pick up their vouchers and shop on the same day. The Norristown Farmers’ Market also caters to the Food Stamp audience by providing an EBT machine that is readily available to use on the spot. Each week, information on fruits and vegetables is distributed and sample recipes, highlighting a specific fruit or vegetable, are created.

I hope to reach out further into the community and provide as much nutrition education as possible with Montco Nutrition Outreach!