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ENLARGE
Mandy Hatfield
he Douglas County Oregon State Extension office is offering a great new program called the Oregon Family Nutrition Program.
The nutrition instructors like to call it OFNP for short. OFNP began in Oregon in 1992, so is still a relatively new program and still growing and expanding.
The Oregon State University Extension Service is fortunate to be the current provider for Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program Education (SNAP-Ed) in Oregon. In other states around the nation, SNAP is administered through public health departments and the like.
OFNP’s goal is to provide educational programming that will increase, within a limited budget, the likelihood that all SNAP recipients and those eligible for SNAP are making healthy food choices and choosing active lifestyles consistent with the most recent Dietary Guidelines for Americans. The Nutrition Education Program is offered at no cost to any participant.
In Douglas County we are working to provide nutritional assistance to food pantry participants through demonstrations and classes.
Once the program gets started, it can assist food box recipients by demonstrating recipes that match up with the foods that participants are receiving.
Recipes that are demonstrated will be handed out to recipients with a sample of the food.
This program relies on our great volunteer base to be successful. For every hour a volunteer donates to OFNP, it is considered in-kind support, which has a value that is matched by the federal funders to support OFNP.
Another facet of OFNP is nutrition education for county schools. Nutrition education is free to any school that meets certain guidelines. It offers a fun, interactive way for children to learn about My Pyramid and the U.S. Department of Agriculture guidelines, and how these relate to the children’s lives.
The class format can be either a single one-time class or a six-class series. Sessions often are comprised of a nutrition lesson, physical activity or game and handouts for students to take home, reinforcing the nutrition focus of the week.
At each class we have simple food preparation or food samples the students can try that ties the nutrition lesson to actual foods. This provides an opportunity for the students to try new foods or learn how to prepare healthy snacks that they can make for themselves at home.
Several local schools have offered to be the first to receive the interactive nutrition series classes. Both Days Creek Charter Middle School and Tiller Elementary School have just finished their last week of the six-week series; Myrtle Creek Elementary School is lined up to be the next to participate in this exciting new program.
To find out how to have these great classes offered in your school, give me a call at 672-4461 or e-mail me at mandy.hatfield@oregonstate. edu.
The nutrition instructors like to call it OFNP for short. OFNP began in Oregon in 1992, so is still a relatively new program and still growing and expanding.
The Oregon State University Extension Service is fortunate to be the current provider for Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program Education (SNAP-Ed) in Oregon. In other states around the nation, SNAP is administered through public health departments and the like.
OFNP’s goal is to provide educational programming that will increase, within a limited budget, the likelihood that all SNAP recipients and those eligible for SNAP are making healthy food choices and choosing active lifestyles consistent with the most recent Dietary Guidelines for Americans. The Nutrition Education Program is offered at no cost to any participant.
In Douglas County we are working to provide nutritional assistance to food pantry participants through demonstrations and classes.
Once the program gets started, it can assist food box recipients by demonstrating recipes that match up with the foods that participants are receiving.
Recipes that are demonstrated will be handed out to recipients with a sample of the food.
This program relies on our great volunteer base to be successful. For every hour a volunteer donates to OFNP, it is considered in-kind support, which has a value that is matched by the federal funders to support OFNP.
Another facet of OFNP is nutrition education for county schools. Nutrition education is free to any school that meets certain guidelines. It offers a fun, interactive way for children to learn about My Pyramid and the U.S. Department of Agriculture guidelines, and how these relate to the children’s lives.
The class format can be either a single one-time class or a six-class series. Sessions often are comprised of a nutrition lesson, physical activity or game and handouts for students to take home, reinforcing the nutrition focus of the week.
At each class we have simple food preparation or food samples the students can try that ties the nutrition lesson to actual foods. This provides an opportunity for the students to try new foods or learn how to prepare healthy snacks that they can make for themselves at home.
Several local schools have offered to be the first to receive the interactive nutrition series classes. Both Days Creek Charter Middle School and Tiller Elementary School have just finished their last week of the six-week series; Myrtle Creek Elementary School is lined up to be the next to participate in this exciting new program.
To find out how to have these great classes offered in your school, give me a call at 672-4461 or e-mail me at mandy.hatfield@oregonstate. edu.
Mandy Hatfield is the Nutrition Education Program instructor for OSU Extension Service of Douglas County.
