Nutrition Education Programs

EAT SMART NEW YORK!

This is a FREE, confidential program to help residents make healthful food choices on a limited budget. The Eat Smart New York (ESNY) Program is available free of charge to residents who receive S.N.A.P Benefits (Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, formerly the Food Stamp Program), those who have applied for S.N.A.P. Benefits, or for residents enrolled in the W.I.C., Medicaid, or Head Start programs.

Our programs build on the skills and competencies of our participants. Our programs are offered in group settings with support from over 20 community agencies, schools and places of worship. Our ESNY! Nutrition educators are skilled facilitators who:

Encourage participants to make healthful food and activity choices.
Help to encourage, build confidence and self esteem.
Build on participant’s current knowledge and practice to foster positive behavior changes for life.

To learn more about the S.N.A.P. Program visit the New York State Office of Temporary and Disability Assistance at: www.otda.us./main

Adults & Youth
To learn about our Eat Smart New York Program Workshop series for adults and youth audiences visit our Healthy Food Choice Workshops.

Informational brochures about each program offered:
Eat Smart! - 6-session workshop series
Sisters & Brothers in Health - 6-8 session workshops
Eat Fit! - 6 session hands-on youth Nutrition Education and health snacks programs

ESNY Partners
Our ESNY partners are key to our success in reaching and teaching county residents. Take an Eat Smart NY! Program Tour to learn more about our partners and program collaborators.

Individual program Impact Fact Sheets:
Atonement Headstart - Winter 2008
Baldwinsville Headstart - Winter 2009
Baldwinsville PEACE - Winter 2009
Fairmount Gardens - Winter 2009
North Area Headstart- Spring 2009
SEYMOUR Dual Language Academy - Spring 2009
Southside PEACE - Spring 2009
YWCA - Early Winter 2009

How ESNY! Programs make a difference!
Each year our nutrition education programs reach up to 1,000 low-income residents. We help residents to:

Adopt healthy eating and lifestyle behaviors.
Enhance practices related to thrifty shopping and preparation of nutritious food.
Ensure that individuals and households have enough to eat without resorting to emergency food assistance.
Practice safe food handling and storage practices.

Review our Annual Program reports for outcomes and program reach across Onondaga County:
ESNY Impact Report - 2008
ESNY Impact Report - 2007
ESNY Impact Report - 2006

EAT SMART New York Resources
ESNY nutrition educators work with participants to connect them with community food programs and resources that help families stretch limited food budgets. For more information see:
Food Sense Program - 2009
Onondaga County Guide to Food Resources - 2009
Stretch your S.N.A.P-ed. Benefits - Look what $14 can buy!

COOKING TOGETHER FOR FAMILY MEALS

What is fun, brings family members together around the table, builds cooking skills, encourages communication and ends in celebrating with a healthy meal each week? This would be the new, pilot CCE Family Nutrition program – Cooking Together for Family Meals. This six- session, 2 hours/class cooking program has helped 8 families with 23 family members in Onondaga County gain skills and confidence to prepare vegetable-based meals from scratch – ones that kids actually eat and enjoy . Families learn how to prepare quick and healthy meals; prepare and sample recipes that focus on vegetables that great taste and good for you to; share cooking skills with their kids; modify recipes and make healthy food choices as a family.

Cooking Together for Family Meals is a 3-year pilot program awarded under a CCE Director’s Grant last year to counties in the Finger Lakes Region. Research suggests that eating family meals may enhance the health and wellbeing of adolescents and that involvement in preparing food for dinner is related to more nutrient-rich eating patterns in youth. Our budding chefs featured 7-12 year olds from Ed Smith and Lemoyne elementary schools with moms, dads, aunts or grandmothers from each family working side-by side with their children, donning aprons, sharpening their chef knives and selecting fresh produce to prepare quick and healthy meals each week, sharing their culinary creations with the other families enrolled.

Participant satisfaction surveys indicated that: 1) all participants enjoyed the program with increased cooking skills for parents and kids alike; 2) parents recognized that their children were now more competent in the kitchen; 3) recipes were very well received with all families making 2 or more CTFM recipes at home as a family; 4) family communication around meal planning and thinking about adding more and different vegetables had increased; 4) families increased confidence in ability to modify recipes given both in the CTFM series as well as at home; and 5) families showed strong support for continuing the program with suggestions for extending the program length.. In each county all families who started the program series completed the program.

CCE educators from Cayuga, Onondaga and Tompkins County led by Cornell faculty have been invited to share this innovative pilot program at the annual meeting for the Society for Nutrition Education in Atlanta this summer. A collaborative session titled: Celebrating Family Food Decision-making: Collaborations for Change is currently being developed.

Check out our programming flier here. For more details and continuing developments in the Cooking Together program, contact Kathy Dischner, Nutrition Team Leader, at 424-9485 x 239 or at kmd13@cornell.edu

EAT FIT

A program empowering youth to identify, choose, and prepare foods that are both nutritious and delicious.

Click here for our informational brochure on this program.