Extension Opportunities in Food Access & Equity, Part Two

(Recorded 3/7/18)

Speakers: Dan Remley, MSPH, PhD, The Ohio State University Extension; Amber Canto, MPH, RDN, University of Wisconsin-Extension & Alexandra Bush-Kaufman, MPH, RDN, CD, Washington State University-Extension

Food access and equity are increasingly relevant when nutrition professionals consider improving the quality of people’s diets. Many nutrition educators in Extension work within two of the USDA low-income nutrition education and obesity prevention programs, SNAP-Ed and EFNEP. The role of the built environment in the diets of Americans is more understood, and it is widely accepted that the places where people live, learn, work, play, and shop affect their food and physical activity behaviors. It is essential that participants of SNAP-Ed and EFNEP have access to nutritious foods so that direct education efforts by Extension educators are successful in improving health behaviors. The food pantry is a common setting for direct education interventions and is growing as a place for policy, systems, and environmental change. Environmental interventions within the food pantry setting improve healthy food access and equity to low-income clients that are served by SNAP-Ed and EFNEP through Extension programming. As such, the role of Extension educators has widened in the types of technical assistance and support Extension educators now provide to food pantry agencies and their clients.

Learning Objectives

1. Gain knowledge and describe the differing roles Extension educators may play in partnerships with food pantries
2. Compare the cost effectiveness of different food pantry based interventions related to educator time
3. Describe typical needs within a food pantry agency and identify methods of successful communication for healthy food equity messages
4. Compare Extension based food pantry, environmental interventions and their related evaluation models

Dan Remley, MSPH, PhD, The Ohio State University Extension
Dr. Remley holds a BA in Zoology from Miami University, Masters of Science in Public Health from UAB and PhD in Nutritional Sciences from University of Kentucky. Dr. Remley worked as a Nutrition Specialist for the University of Missouri Extension for 3 years and as a Family and Consumer Sciences Extension Educator for Ohio State University Extension in Butler County for 10 years. Since 2012, Dr. Remley has served as an Assistant Professor and Field Specialist for The Ohio State University Extension and is headquartered at OSU South Centers in Piketon, Ohio.

Amber Canto, MPH, RDN, University of Wisconsin-Extension
Amber Canto, MPH, RDN received her dietetics degree from the University of WI-Madison, and completed her master's degree in public health nutrition with a global health emphasis with the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill Gillings School of Global Public Health. Amber has worked as a nutrition consultant with the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) in the Dominican Republic where she coordinated infant and young child feeding interventions on the Haitian-Dominican border. She previously held the position as Poverty and Food Security Specialist with University of Wisconsin-Extension where she addressed food systems and food security, poverty awareness and education, and nutrition education with low-income audiences. She currently serves as the State Coordinator of FoodWIse at the University of WI-Extension. 

Alexandra Bush-Kaufman, MPH, RDN, CD, Washington State University-Extension
Alexandra earned her BS in Dietetics and Human Nutrition from Southeast Missouri State University and her Masters in Public Health Nutrition from University of Washington-Seattle. She is a Registered Dietitian and Certified in the State of Washington. Alexandra began working for Washington State University Extension in 2014 while completing her Masters. She has served as a program and research coordinator for an AFRI-grant, the Washington State SNAP-Ed and EFNEP programs, and as a research coordinator for RNECE-W.

Webinar sponsored by the FNEE Division.