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 (Santa Fe County)
Date October 31, 2010, 9:46 pm
For Objective Short-term Show short-term objectives
Impact Report • This summer I taught a series of Youth ICAN classes in Santa Fe at the YMCA day camp, a nutrition workshop at the Genoveva Chavez Community Center with 90 children, and also observed the ICAN educators at several other Parks and Recreation summer camp sites. We worked with 7 out of the 8 Parks and Recreation sites this summer, and it elevated the awareness of the ICAN Youth Program in Santa Fe. The children love the hands-on cooking activity and they also like the germ detective class where they get to gather samples of germs and then look at them under a microscope the following week. The entire ICAN group (two educators and I) graduated over 60 additional Youth this summer (we had over 200 children each week, but many only came for two or three weeks during the summer). The summer Youth ICAN effort numbers are not reflected in the Youth ICAN third quarter report. • I did do healthy snack tastings at the Santa Fe County Fair with over 300 people attending the Fair this August and also had an ICAN Information booth. I also participated in a Just Be It (JBI) Parent night activity. In late August, I gave a presentation to healthcare workers at the local hospital (Christus St. Vincent Regional Medical Center) on Child Nutrition and Dealing with the Fast Food Epidemic. • We had a very successful meeting with the new Santa Fe County ISD Director and the Bureau Chief, NM HSD/ISD/Food and Nutrition Services Bureau. This is the first step in building a relationship, I gave a presentation on the ICAN program in Santa Fe and the Bureau Chief gave us an update on what was happening statewide. One good thing that happened in New Mexico for the SNAP clients is their SNAP benefit will be matched dollar for dollar at Farmer’s Markets and Santa Fe’s Farmers Market can accept SNAP Electronic Benefit Transfer (EBT) cards. We will also agreed to provide classes in the near future or the Santa Fe County ISD staff to help with program recruitment, and starting in November we will be doing classes in the Santa Fe County ISD lobby on a regular basis as a recruiting effort. Santa Fe County’s minimum graduation goal is 150 adults (series of 4 classes/client to graduate) which can be challenging as the adults are not in a contained classroom setting like the youth and are very transient. • Supervising the ICAN staff is not without its challenges, and there is a lot of work to be done in the area of team building. One ICAN Nutrition Educator has already exceeded their annual Youth ICAN graduation goal, as of the third quarter with 137 Youth graduates and 33 Adult graduates, and this Nutrition Educator is on track to meet or exceed their annual adult graduation goal of 75 Adults. This individual is outstanding and has begun Adult ICAN recruiting at both the Santa Fe and Pojoaque Farmer’s Markets as more SNAP Ed clients are coming to the markets due to the new dollar for dollar benefit match initiated by Governor Richardson in late August. The Santa Fe County Program Assistant has also done an outstanding job by: volunteering to teach an adult class at a local food bank resulting in 11 additional adult ICAN graduates and plans to teach another class in 2011; writing articles for local newsletters; and attends and represents the Santa Fe County ICAN Program in monthly planning meetings at one of the food banks in Santa Fe. As with all paraprofessional staff there are performance issues, the other Nutrition Educator will not meet their Youth or Adult graduation goal for last year, and we are working toward meeting our annual graduation goal in this new fiscal year. That being said, it is very challenging to run both Youth and Adult programs and many states have different Nutrition Educators for Youth and Adult SNAP Ed programs. Our ICAN clients do appreciate our efforts, Please see below for our Adult ICAN clients comments:  “My child would not eat until I started preparing these fast and easy recipes that I learned in the ICAN classes.”  “We eat more fruits and try new foods.”  “Since I started the classes I was encouraged to have more healthy eating habits.”  “Yes, I have been trying, but it is really easy. I learned a lot.” Our Educators do make a difference; please below for ICAN Behavior Survey % Improvement: Most of the time: • I looked at nutrition labels when deciding what food to buy. (71% improvement) • I prepared healthy meals at home each day. (50% improvement) • I did 30 minutes of physical activity each day. (46% improvement) • I paid attention to portion sizes. (50% improvement) • I ate at least 3 ounces of WHOLE grains each day. (43% improvement) • I ate at least 4 cups of fruits and vegetables each day. (42% improvement)