KA 703. Nutrition Education and Behavior (McKinley County Nutrition Plan of Work )

Indian Livestock Days
Hon-Dah Resort-Casino and Conference Center in Pinetop, Arizona was the host this year for Indian Livestock Days which were held on May 28th & 29th 2008. 64 men and women attended the Health Fair that was held on the evening of the 28th. Participants took the opportunity to talk to presenters on health/nutrition information about Eating Out When You Have Diabetes and Easy Snacks, fruit kabobs, MyPyramid, Getting your Calcium-milk tasting, and other booths. The Health fair was well received and well attended,the presenters were from both the state of New Mexico and Arizona.

Food Mania "Creative Snacks" 11 parents from Chichiltah Elementary attended the workshop and participated in hands-on activities offered on March 25, 2008. The sessions are 1 1/2 hours long for four weeks and we met once a week March through April. The attendies were Native American parents from the FACE Program 2 male and 9 female gained knowledge about nutrition and healthy snacks. Being creative with snacks makes the snack more appealing and the adults and their children can make them together which is one of the requirements of the workshop. The parents prepared several snacks and tasted them shared their own ideas with others and were excited to share what they learned with the rest of their children. Four workshops were held once a week for four weeks as required in the "Food Mania" series and each session targets different nutrition information and activities.

Parents of the Chichiltah FACE Program completed the 4 sessions from "Kitchen Creations" A Cooking School for People with Diabetes and Their Families on November 6, 2007. The parents engaged in several activities and prepared recipes from the New Mexico Recipes Book. Pat Sheley Registered Dietitian shared important information about Type 1/Type 2 diabetes and gestational diabetes with the class. The group learned about the 50/50 Method and practiced measuring serving sizes. Fresh vegetables and fruit for the recipes were donated by the Gallup Community Pantry. Jim Harlin, Director and Hilda Kendall, Manager have been donating food items for Kitchen Creation recipes as a thank you for services that we provide for their clientele commodities on a weekly basis.

Schedualing the Gallup McKinley County and BIA Schools for Nutrition porgrams has kept the Nutrition Educators, LaRae Kendall and Gloria Yazzie busy this year. With the growing number of obese children reported through news or other research, educating the youth is a good way of starting to decrease health problems such as diabetes, high cholesterol and other health problems associated with today's children. The number of students that have completed Cooking With Kids, Eat Smart/Play Hard, or Team Nutrition are about 4,376.
There are 5 groups that completed all 3 of the curriculumes during the year. Teachers have already requested the programs for next year. The totals reported are from September of 2006 to August of 2007. Adult programs total about 50 ICAN graduates and one time programs total 106. The ICAN graduates completes the 12 lessons and received their ICAN certificate. The one time lessons include Career/Health Fairs, WIC, ISD, Senior Citizens Centers that request single ICAN lessons or other requested specific nutrition programs. Requests for 2007-2008 are already in palce for the comming school year. Sending nutrition information home with the students has been a great success in changing the eating habits of the students in McKinley County. The Wellness Committee has been a great advocate in the promotion the nutrition programs in the schools. Changing the eating habits of people in the rural communities is slow, but the change will benefit the next generation in many ways. Another concept under way is bring the family meals back to the table one meal at a time. This is one of the 2007-2008 goals.

Native Livestyles members in Tohatchi learn about “Kitchen Creations”. Effie Barney stated that members need to learn how to prepare food, traditional and other without the use added fat. Deep frying is one habit that will take long to kick, so teaching people to use Olive and Vegetable Oil is one way of introducing them to changes. Most of the recipes in the New Mexico Recipes Cookbook use very little or no oil in their preparation of traditional dishes. 17 Native Livestyles members enjoyed learning new methods of preparing foods, serving sizes, using the 50/50 Method and tasting the food prepared at the sessions. All members completed the 4 sessions and received their certificates in March of 2007. Pat Sheley of Indian Health Services indicated that “Kitchen Creations” with it’s hands-on activities is the best way to teach rural people the correct way to prepare, season, and consume food that that healthy. This new diabetes diagnosed group will continue to meet once a month to monitor and report changes. There is talk about "Kitchen Creations" being a requirement of newly diagonesed people with diabetes.