Note: This site is for reviewing legacy plan of work data from 2007-2011. If you are looking for the current plan of work interface, visit pow.nmsu.edu.

Impact Report

For plan KA 703. Nutrition Education and Behavior (Doña Ana County)
Date November 2, 2009, 3:50 am
For Objective Short-term Show short-term objectives
Impact Report Low income populations face numerous problems associated with inadequate nutrition. In some cases, children do not eat enough to sustain health and to grow and develop at optimal levels. Even more commonly, individuals make poor food choices, which can lead to chronic disease problems such as obesity, diabetes, and heart disease. The agent offers general nutrition information as part of workshops to elementary, middle school and university students, parents, seniors, department of health clients and colonias residents. The agent also offered nutrition information as part of community events such as health fairs, the Las Cruces Home and Garden Show, the City National Night Out and the Hatch Chile Festival. A particularly impactful part of this nutrition education is a display that shows how much sugar and fat is in common snack foods (i.e. candy bars, chips and soda). The agent has anecdotal evidence of the impact of this display. For example one woman said her elementary school-age son warned his father of the amount of sugar contained in soda after seeing the display. City and County staff have also requested this display be present at future community events. When possible, the agent offers an evaluation following a general nutrition program. Evaluations from workshops showed over 95% of participants found the program useful. The following are examples of comments participants listed when asked how they planned to use the information they learned from the program: • “Cook lighter and make better food choices, read labels.” • “Plan my meals.” • “Exercise more, eat less junk food, eat a variety of fruits and veggies.” • “Offer healthier snacks to my children.” • “Drink less soda.” • “Play outside more or ride my bike.” • “Eat less fat, like Hot Cheetos.” • “Drink water and milk.” • “Eat Breakfast”