Childhood obesity is one of the leading problems facing Americans today. As children continue to struggle with both obesity and food insecurity, many parents and doctors look to schools to be responsible for providing healthful meals. The aim of the Farm to School (F2S) program is to bring fresh, local produce into school cafeterias. Aligning with…

Within University of Minnesota Extension's health and nutrition program area, we created and are using a decision-making tree to prioritize our work with communities of color through equitable decision-making practices. The tool is currently used to help grant administrators winnow down a pool of applicants for a participatory grant-making program…

We present findings from a pilot implementation of the Extension Wellness Ambassador Program, a health-focused master volunteer program, and briefly describe the program approach and purpose. Program participants received 40 hr of training and completed assessments of self-efficacy, physical activity, and functional fitness at baseline and 3-month…

The evaluation described in this article focused on the effectiveness of Arkansas's Extension-based Expanded Food and Nutrition Education Program (EFNEP) but demonstrates an analytic approach that may be useful across Extension programs. We analyzed data from 1,810 Arkansas EFNEP participants' entry and exit Behavior Checklists to assess…

Oklahoma Cooperative Extension Service provided elementary school students with a program that included a noncompetitive physical activity component: circuit training that combined cardiovascular, strength, and flexibility activities without requiring high skill levels. The intent was to improve fitness without focusing on body mass index as an…

By promoting physical activities and incorporating them into their community-based programs, Extension professionals are improving the health of individuals, particularly those with limited resources. This article is the second in a three-part series describing the benefits of physical activity for human health: (1) biological health benefits of…

Four multi-session research-based programs were offered by two Extension specialist in one rural Missouri county. Eleven participants who came to multiple Extension programs could be called "repeat customers." Based on the total number of participants for all four programs, 25% could be deemed as repeat customers. Repeat customers had…

Migrant and seasonal farmworkers are typically Spanish-speaking, Latino immigrants with limited formal education and low literacy skills and, as such, are a vulnerable population. We describe the development of the "Pesticides and Farmworker Health Toolkit", a pesticide safety and health curriculum designed to communicate to farmworkers…

Extension is focusing on healthy homes programming. Extension educators are not qualified to diagnose consumers' medical problems as they relate to housing. We cannot give medical advice. Instead, we can help educate consumers about home conditions that may affect their well-being. Extension educators need appropriate healthy homes tools to…

Keeping children safe and healthy is one of the main concerns of parents and child care providers. SIDS (Sudden Infant Death Syndrome) is the leading cause of death in infants 1 month to 12 months of age. Over 2,000 infants die from SIDS every year in the United States, and almost 15% of these deaths occur in child care settings. A targeted…

In recognition of the changing influences on animal health, Extension professionals are charged with the responsibility of delivering educational programs to our limited resources farmers on the importance of herd health. Herd-health programs must be designed and implemented with the help of an Extension veterinarian to provide routine, planned…

Teens in limited-resource communities face challenges to healthy eating. Many youths lack food preparation skills and have limited access to ingredients needed to prepare healthy foods at home. University of Maryland Extension offered healthy food preparation lessons to teen participants of a popular weekly electronic gaming program in a Baltimore…

The demographic and socioeconomic impacts of the baby boomer generation turning 65 in 2011 will be magnified in rural areas where elderly are already disproportionately represented. The overall goal of a collaborative, community-based project was to improve the health literacy, health outcomes, and overall well-being of rural elderly in four…

Describes Instant Health Info, a program providing telephone access to prerecorded tapes on health and safety topics. When calls declined after an initial burst of activity, special marketing methods were tried. (JOW)

The expertise of Extension or community health educators can be used to mobilize actual and potential patients, professionals, lay people, community groups and specific agencies; program innovations at the state and local levels in Maryland are reviewed. (Editor)