| Nutrition Education |
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Welcomed Changes Coming to the WIC Food Package
The WIC Food Package has not changed significantly over the past thirty years—it supplements families’ diets with milk, juice, eggs, cheese and peanut butter/beans as well as cereal and formula to infants and carrots and tuna to breastfeeding mothers. These foods have remained staples in the WIC Food Package as they are packed with protein, calcium, iron and vitamins A and C—all nutrients needed for growth and development, and at one time often lacking from participants’ diets. To align with most current nutrition recommendations, the Institutes of Medicine (IOM) was charged by the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) in 2005 with providing recommendations for improvements to the WIC Food Package without raising its total cost.
In April 2005, IOM released their report, WIC Food Packages: Time for a Change; recommendations in the report encourage WIC to provide fruits, vegetables and whole grains, as well as to promote breastfeeding through better benefits.
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CSPI Release School Food Report Card
The Center for Science in the Public Interest (CSPI) recently released a school food report card that evaluated the school nutrition policies of all fifty states and the District of Columbia regarding foods and beverages sold outside of the school meal programs through vending machines, a la carte (i.e., foods sold individually in the cafeteria), school stores and fundraisers. Each state policy was graded based on five key considerations: 1) beverage nutrition standards, 2) food nutrition standards, 3) grade level(s) to which policies apply, 4) time during the school day to which policies apply, and 5) location(s) on campus to which policies apply. CSPI graded states based on standards within each of the above considerations.
Only one state, Kentucky, received an A, while twenty-three states—including Pennsylvania—received a failing grade.
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House Bill 185
Before the General Assembly adjourned for the summer, it passed House Bill 185. This bill first emerged in the House Education Committee after the chairman of the committee, Jess Stairs, conducted public hearings during the summer of 2004 to consider how schools and educational institutions should respond to the problem of childhood overweight and obesity.
The 72-page HB 185 as enacted by the General Assembly addresses a host of education and school-related matters. This article focuses on just a few pages from that bill—those concerning obesity prevention and nutrition.
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| PA NEN Member Initiatives |
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Penn State Nutrition Links
Nutrition Links manages the administration of both the Expanded Food and Nutrition Education Program (EFNEP) and the Pennsylvania Nutrition Education Program (PA NEP) for Penn State Cooperative Extension. Both programs are federally funded to provide nutrition education to Pennsylvania residents with limited incomes. EFNEP programming is targeted to youth and caretakers of young children, while PA NEP programming may target anyone, of any age, who is eligible for food stamps. Nutrition Links does not supply free food or food stamps, but rather offers activities that develop the knowledge and skills to achieve a healthful diet on a limited budget.
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American Cancer Society
Now, there is another reason to adopt a healthier lifestyle: according to the American Cancer Society, being overweight is a risk factor for many forms of cancer. A new nationwide survey commissioned by the American Cancer Society finds that while 83 percent of Americans recognize the link between being overweight and having heart disease and 57 percent know the link to diabetes, only eight percent understand that there is a connection between obesity or overweight and the risk of cancer.
Being overweight is a risk factor for many forms of cancer, including breast cancer among post-menopausal women and colorectal cancer. It is estimated that about one-third of the 564,830 cancer deaths expected to occur in the United States in 2006 will be attributable to poor nutrition, physical inactivity and being overweight or obese. Nearly two-thirds of Americans are overweight, 30 percent of which are obese.
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PANA Upcoming Events
On September 19, PANA will hold their biannual statewide satellite update. The program will be offered at twenty-nine site locations (intermediate units and cooperative extension offices) throughout the state and will feature progress and new information on school health and wellness requirements from the Departments of Education and Health; highlight PANA resources available to support local efforts to improve nutrition and physical activity; provide collective results and outcomes from the Keystone Healthy Zone and Keystone Active Zone campaigns; and offer free materials and information on celebrating Walk to (or at) School Day and the Great Pennsylvania Apple Crunch.
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| PA NEN Updates |
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At Issue...Freedom to Choose
A recent visit to Hyde Park, New York, the home of President Franklin Delano Roosevelt, re-introduced me to a key concept of the Roosevelt administration: the Four Freedoms. On January 6, 1941, President Roosevelt spoke to the 77th Congress saying, “We look forward to a world founded upon four essential human freedoms. The first is freedom of speech and expression—everywhere in the world. The second is freedom of every person to worship God in his own way—everywhere in the world. The third is freedom from want....The fourth is freedom from fear.”
You may be wondering how this relates to nutrition.
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Barbara Lohse, Ph.D., R.D.,
Principal Investigator
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PA NEN School Breakfast Summary
As discussed in an article in the winter newsletter, the Pennsylvania Nutrition Education Network (PA NEN), while promoting nutrition education, wanted also to promote increased school breakfast participation. Using the data provided by the Pennsylvania Nutrition Education Program (PA NEP), the Network identified schools with a 50 percent or higher free- and reduced-lunch eligibility that had low-participation breakfast programs.
Five school districts—Altoona, Bloomsburg, Bristol Township, Brownsville and Williamsport—participated in the program that evaluated fifteen schools between January and March. Some of the schools offered only indirect instruction along with taste-testings while other schools offered both indirect and direct instruction along with taste-testings. In all, 6,438 students received Food Stamp Nutrition Education (FSNE) in one form or another, and of that number, 4,870 actually received direct instruction. PA NEN identified 58.7 percent of the students as the target population.
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Research Update - Blogging
In the last issue of Food for Thought, the research committee continued its series of articles on the effectiveness of different approaches of delivering nutrition education. Karin Sargrad from Drexel University introduced innovative multimedia (IMM) as a method for combining nutrition education and technology. The previous month we looked at the possibility of text messaging for nutrition education. This month, we focus our attention to the Internet and the wonderful world of “blogging.”
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Committee Corner
On May 22, 2006, the Pennsylvania Nutrition Education Network (PA NEN) held its annual spring meeting at the Crowne Plaza Hotel in Harrisburg, PA. In order to provide the opportunity for all PA NEN members to be actively involved in the Network, members were asked to indicate their interest in participating on one or more of the eight PA NEN committees. As such, the PA NEN staff would like to take this opportunity to briefly highlight each committee and thank all those who are taking the time to serve and provide leadership for the programs and activities of the Network. We’re looking forward to an exciting and productive year!
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Strengthening the Food Resource Safety Net
6th Annual Conference
On May 22 and 23, the Pennsylvania Nutrition Education Network and the Pennsylvania Hunger Action Center hosted their 6th annual conference, Strengthening the Food Resource Safety Net, at the Crowne Plaza Hotel in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. The event was a great success with attendance peaking at 128 participants, a number unequaled in previous years. The event also brought in more than thirty speakers weighing in on topics ranging from nutrition education methods and programs to political agendas to childhood hunger. The conference provided an excellent opportunity for professionals to learn and be challenged, to network and share ideas, and to renew their commitment to bringing both nutrition education and food security to low-income Pennsylvanians.
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Nutrition Education on Demand Workshop
PA NEN Professional Workshop
On August 29, the Pennsylvania Nutrition Education Network (PA NEN), in collaboration with the Central PA Dietetic Association, presented a workshop for nutrition educators entitled “Nutrition on Demand: Bringing Digital Nutrition Education to Pennsylvania Families.” The goals of the workshop were to familiarize nutrition educators with technological advances and to identify ways to utilize technology to better serve clients. More than fifty people attended this workshop, held in a beautiful resort setting, to learn about blogging, digital photo receivers, and marketing messages through e-newsletters.
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