PA NEN Nutrition Education Database

The PA NEN is proud to debut a new feature on its Web site: the PA NEN Nutrition Education Database! Our goal is to build, with your help, a state-wide, web-based database listing those nutrition education programs that serve the low-income audience. This database will provide at-a-glance information that can be used to find educational programs in specific locations. It will also be utilized to locate gaps in services and to reveal agencies that could be linked together to more efficiently provide service to those in need.

We are currently collecting program information. If you would like to add your nutrition education program to our database, please visit www.pahunger.org/panen/ to input your information. Once we receive an adequate number of entries, we will launch the database on the members-only portion of our Web site.

Program data will be searchable by county, target audience, program components, and program goals. A mapping function will further show the distribution of specific nutrition education activities across the state. Thirty-three maps will be searchable by program components, program goals, target audience, food stamp eligibility, and Pennsylvania Nutrition Education TRACKS funding.

To ensure that this database targets low-income oriented programs with strong nutrition programming, two criteria have been put in place. First, programs must adhere to the 2005 Dietary Guidelines for Americans and MyPyramid. Additionally, at least one of the components listed on step two of the survey (www.pahunger.org/panen/) must be offered at no cost to participants.

Thank you in advance for your participation! By contributing to this database, you will help us facilitate access to reliable nutrition information. By working together, we can accomplish our goal of making nutrition education available to all of Pennsylvania’s citizens.

If you have any questions, please contact Julie Masteller at jmasteller@pahunger.org.