- Author: Nancy Zumkeller
- Editor: Emily Harris
Many people view summertime as a lazy, relaxing time of year, but not the 25 senior citizens at Fresno's Lafayette Community Center and Pinedale Community Center. These seniors spent their summer learning about maintaining a healthy lifestyle by including more fruits and vegetables in their daily diet.
Nutrition Educator, Consuelo Cid, teaching seniors at Lafayette Community Center how fruits and vegetables contain many vitamins and minerals our bodies need daily.
The UC CalFresh Nutrition Education program collaborated with Fresno's Parks and Recreation Department to offer senior citizens in the Fresno community no-cost, nutrition education classes over a 5-week period. The Eat Smart, Live Strong curriculum gave seniors tips on how to include more fruits and vegetables in their diet and how to save money while still eating healthy foods. Seniors were also able to taste quick, inexpensive and healthy recipes prepared by the UC CalFresh staff every week during the series.
Nutrition Educator, Consuelo Cid, demonstrating how to cool down after doing any physical activity with seniors at Lafayette Community Center.
The seniors at both community centers also learned about physical activity because it is an integral part of a healthy lifestyle. Everyone participated in learning four new exercises at each class session along with the proper way to warm up and cool down when exercising. Participants graduated after the 5-week session with a certificate of completion from the University of California and nutrition education reinforcement items to remind them to continue on their journey towards a healthy lifestyle. These items included reusable shopping bags, cookbooks, reusable water bottles and fruit and vegetable scrub brushes. The seniors expressed how informational and fun these classes were for them, and promised to continue eating fruits and vegetables every day and participating in at least 30 minutes of physical activity most days of the week.
Nutrition Program Coordinator, Kristi Schultz-Sharp, with the Eat Smart, Live Strong graduates at Pinedale Community Center.
- Author: Javier Miramontes
- Contributor: Evelyn Morales
- Contributor: Nath Say
- Editor: Shelby MacNab
While students were on summer vacation, local seniors got an opportunity to go “back to school” with UC Calfresh.
UC CalFresh Nutrition Educators have been busy teaching senior nutrition classes in Fresno County this summer. The curricula taught included: Eat Smart, Live Strong (ESLS) and Plan Shop Save and Cook (PSSC).
Our signature senior curriculum, ESLS, focuses on teaching seniors to include a variety of fruits and vegetables daily, as well as the importance of getting 30 minutes of physical activity every day.
In each of our lessons, senior participants learned to make low-cost nutritious meals, save money while shopping, and easy ways to incorporate physical activity into their day.
Special thanks to all of our partnering agencies for making these classes possible. Sites that offered our Senior Nutrition Education Series include: Senior Citizen's Village, Ted C. Wills Community Center, Sunnyside Glen Apartments, Mosqueda Community Center, Selma Senior Center and Pinedale Community Center.
If you'd like to bring nutrition education to seniors in your community, please email lybrewer@ucanr.edu or comment below.
