Nutrition Education to Help People Save Money? – Linda Drake

People need all the help they can get these days to be able to eat. The food assistance programs that End Hunger CT works with are vital to give folks either actual food, like the summer food program for kids, or food stamps to help them buy more food. But I think that helping people learn more about the food they eat, how to choose food for better health AND save money at the same time can be important, too. While the dollar menus are tempting, do they really save money if you’re feeding a family? At what cost to health?

Nutrition education is criticized because it hasn’t proven it works. But the major force that works either for or against nutrition education is the complex food environment in which people find themselves and how it has influenced them over time; the attitudes and values they hold as a result of that complex environment; and their ability and willingness to make choices that go against the tide.

Most of us know what we SHOULD be eating, but it’s the doing it that is hard. We all choose food because we like it. Other reasons are that it’s available, affordable, and we know how to prepare it. Now, with food costs going up so fast, people rely on cheap food to fill their cupboards and their stomachs. These include easy-to-fix or ready-to-eat processed foods that are high in fat, sugar and/or salt but low in important vitamins, minerals and fiber. These foods contribute to obesity, and increase risks for heart disease, diabetes and cancer.

I am the director of a federal food and nutrition education program (Expanded Food and Nutrition Education Program, or EFNEP) that works with low-income families and kids in targeted areas throughout the state. EFNEP is a USDA nutrition education program that has shown improvements in food behavior and knowledge, but this is after a series of several contact hours, within the community, and in-depth, personalized, hands-on, interactive education (usually involving some tasting of nutritious foods) conducted by educators who understand the issues that people face daily.

Effective nutrition education like EFNEP, when combined with access to food assistance programs, can help people maneuver their food environments better and can improve their health and well-being.

CT EFNEP information – including publications to download

National EFNEP information

CT Food Policy Council- great recipes for CT Grown foods