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Individual home visits - EFNEP Educators conduct lessons
with program participants in their homes on a weekly basis over the period of
several months. Lessons are tailored to the needs and interests of the participants.
Lessons are interactive, and include food preparation instruction, recipes, grocery
store tours, interactive computer software, and other hands-on activities. In
order to receive the EFNEP Certificate of Graduation, participants need to complete
at least six lessons.
Small group classes - EFNEP Educators collaborate with community
agencies to offer small group classes to their eligible clientele. Classes are
typically six weeks long and held in a community setting. Classes involve hands-on
activities designed to empower participants to make healthier choices for themselves
and their families. One example of a group class that EFNEP offers is Cooking
for Life: Adult (below).
Mail-out lessons -
Participants who are out of our service area can participate in EFNEP through
lessons-by-mail and phone support.
Cooking for Life: Adult - The goal of Cooking
for Life: Adult is to empower limited-resource parents to prepare healthy, affordable meals for
their families by increasing their nutrition, budgeting, shopping, and cooking
skills. With increased skills in low-cost meal preparation, family food dollars
can be stretched further, decreasing the risk of hunger for children and other
family members. Since the Cooking for Life program began in 1999, over 1,753
parents have participated in 166 series offered throughout Vermont.
Target audience - Participants are low-income parents of young children and expecting mothers.
The program is offered through organizations that work with the target population,
such as local family centers; Head Start; the Special Supplemental Nutrition
Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC); and Community Action Agencies.
Class topics - Cooking for Life classes
meet once a week for six weeks. During each 2 ½ hour
session, participants work with a nutrition educator and a local chef through
hands-on activities to acquire the knowledge, skills, and changes in behavior
necessary to achieve adequate diets on limited budgets. The Cooking
for Life curriculum was developed by dietitians at the Vermont Campaign
to End Childhood Hunger and the University of Vermont’s Expanded Food and Nutrition
Education Program and is updated regularly based on feedback from participants
and educators. Topics covered in the curriculum include: The Food Guide Pyramid,
Fats in the Diet, Fruits and Vegetables, Food Safety, Meal Planning, Grocery
Shopping, and Child Feeding Issues. Recipes made during class correspond to the
nutrition topic for that week. View a Cooking
for Life: Adult class
outline (pdf) along with a list of weekly recipes.
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"This class was phenomenal. It was a great eye-opener
for me. I once thought that to eat healthy, all I could eat was rice and beans!
Thank you so much."
— Cooking for Life graduate |
