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Home & Family: Welfare Reform

NUTRITION FOR LIMITED-RESOURCE AUDIENCES

For twenty-eight years, the Expanded Food and Nutrition Education Program (EFNEP) has served limited-resource families in Mississippi in an effort to improve their nutrition, health, well-being, and quality of life.

The Expanded Food and Nutrition Education Program (EFNEP) assists limited resource families in improving their nutrition, health, and economic status. EFNEP is an integral part of the Cooperative Extension Service in selected Mississippi counties through Mississippi State University in cooperation with the U. S. Department of Agriculture. This nutrition education program, funded by the U.S. Congress in 1968, employs paraprofessional nutrition educators under the supervision of Extension Home Economics professionals to teach homemakers individually or in small groups. The youth phase of EFNEP provides classroom-based nutrition and health learning experiences to preschool (primarily in Head Start centers) and lower elementary school children and their parents and teachers. Since the start of EFNEP in 1969, more than 500,000 Mississippi families, including the youth audience, have received nutrition education. These practical hands-on learning experiences have led to improvements in dietary practices, food management skills, and nutrition related health habits, thus making an impact on the overall quality of life of these participants.

Promoting sound nutrition and health principles to limited-resource families through education is the primary goal of EFNEP. Unlike welfare and food assistance programs, EFNEP focuses on nutrition and health related knowledge and skills. Rather than providing food or money to these families, EFNEP concentrates on providing them with the tools to use their resources wisely to provide adequate nutrition and to promote good health. Children involved in this program receive activity-based learning experiences to educate them in good health and nutrition practices that will enable them to make wise choices themselves and to influence the habits and practices of their parents.

Because one fifth of Mississippi's population live at or below the poverty level, food assistance and nutrition education programs are vital to the improvement of the nutrition and health status of the state. Thirty percent of the children in Mississippi are in poverty and these children will need all the tools that society can provide them, in order to break through the poverty cycle and become productive, contributing adults. Living in poverty means being hungry or ill-fed. Hunger and malnutrition lead to costly health problems. EFNEP is providing the tools to help limited-resource families improve their overall well-being.

PROGRAMS THAT WORK

Limited-resource families with young children are the target audience of EFNEP. Many of these families also participate in other government programs such as food stamps, WIC, Head Start, and commodity foods programs. In 1996, EFNEP was conducted in 30 Mississippi counties reaching more than 53,000 individual family members. Ninety-three nutrition educators were employed to provide learning experiences for enrolled EFNEP participants and their families.

The Adult Program

Of the 2790 adult homemakers enrolled in a series of nutrition and health lessons called Making Healthy Choices with PALS (Partner Assisted Learning System) in 1996, 88% graduated by completing eight of the twelve lessons. These lessons are taught monthly by an EFNEP nutrition educator who serves as the homemaker's partner in learning. The lessons are taught in one on one home visits or in small community-based groups. Eighty-nine percent of these graduated homemakers reported a positive change in nutritional practices. Twenty-four hour food recalls and other impact data are collected to determine the effect this program has on the participants and their families.

The Youth Program

More than thirteen thousand preschool children (primarily in Head Start centers throughout the state received 8270 contact hours of nutrition education from youth EFNEP nutrition educators working directly with the students in the classroom. In addition to this instruction, the teachers of the preschool classes received additional materials and training to use in their ongoing classroom activities. The parents of the children also received nutrition, health, and parenting information via monthly newsletters. More than 1300 volunteers were recruited to extend and enhance the outreach of EFNEP. The value of the volunteer hours and services was estimated at more than $200,000.

CONTACT:

Nelda Starks, M.S., R.D.Extension Nutrition Education Specialist/EFNEP Coordinator neldas@ext.msstate.edu Box 9644 Mississippi State, MS 39762 (662) 325-3360 FAX: (662) 325-8407