- Author: Beatriz Adrianna Rojas
- co-author: Andra Nicoli
- co-author: Angie Keihner
CFHL, UCCE and 4-H team up in Kern County to offer comprehensive food and nutrition education to farmworker families. Participants improved their food resource management and nutrition practices, contributing to UC ANR's public value of promoting healthy people and communities.
The Issue
Shafter Healthy Start Family Resource Center (FRC) is part of the Richland School District in Shafter, CA. Shafer is a rural city located 18 miles northwest of Bakersfield. In order to proactively support families in creating healthy lifestyles, administrators and staff at Shafter Healthy Start FRC collaborated with CalFresh Healthy Living, UCCE Kern (CFHL, UCCE Kern) and the Kern 4-H Program to provide family-centered virtual nutrition and cooking education from April 28 to May 19, 2021.
According to KidsData, Kern County has a food insecurity rate that is higher than the state average at 23.8% compared to California's overall rate of 18%. Forty-four percent of children were drinking one or more sugar-sweetened beverages per day, and only 34.8% of children ate five or more servings of fruits & vegetables a day. Obesity rates are also high, with nearly 50% of children and 74% of adults being either overweight or obese.
How UC Delivers
To provide comprehensive services to the 12 enrolled families, CFHL, UCCE Kern collaborated with the 4-H Program. Both parents and children received virtual lessons through Zoom to reduce obesity through healthy nutrition. Food resource management lessons from the Plan, Shop, Save, and Cook curriculum were taught in Spanish were also provided for families, with sessions held in the afternoon to accommodate farm working schedules. During the lessons, parents were taught how to plan their meals, read and understand food labels, save money on food, and ensure food safety. Physical activity breaks are incorporated in the lesson plan to illustrate the importance of active living for health and wellness.
The Kern 4-H Family Cooking Academy provided families with virtual cooking demonstrations using the Teens as Teachers model. A teen volunteer facilitated the food demonstration to the younger peers. Families received a bag with all the ingredients needed to follow along during the food demonstrations. Recipes chosen followed MyPlate recommendations and included various infused water recipes. During the demonstrations, food safety principles for both youth and adults were discussed. All food costs were covered by the Kern Family Health Care Community Grant that Shafter Healthy Start FRC received.
The Impact
Families shared their enthusiasm to prepare food they had never tried before like tofu and quinoa. Some children seen on video gave a “thumbs up” after tasting the meals they helped create. Many shared that they would be willing to serve the recipe again to their families.
Plan, Shop, Save, and Cook (PSSC) adult participant evaluation survey results indicated that:
- 6 out of 7 participants reported improvement in at least 1 of the 5 food resource management behaviors (plan, prices, shop, think, facts).
- 6 out of 7 participants reported shopping with a grocery list more often.5 out of 7 participants reported planning meals ahead of time more often.
- 4 out of 7 participants reported that they use "Nutrition Facts" on the food label to make food choices more often.
- 4 out of 7 participants reported using MyPlate to make food choices more often.
- 4 out of 7 participants reported running out of food before the end of the month less often.
- 2 out of 7 participants reported comparing unit prices before buying food more often.
- 1 out of 7 participants reported that when deciding what to feed their family, they thought about healthy food choices more often.
The majority of these participants responded “Most of the time” (n=2) or “Almost always” (n=5) on the pre survey – leaving little room for improvement during the post survey.
Through this local partnership, CFHL, UCCE Kern and Kern 4-H demonstrate UC ANR's commitment to healthy people and communities, helping to improve the budgeting, nutrition knowledge and skills of farm working families in rural agricultural areas that would otherwise receive limited services of this type which can help influence future health outcomes.
"The nutrition classes have helped families try new healthy alternative ingredients that they normally do not buy or know much about. Having this partnership has given us the opportunity to educate children at their level of understanding, as well as parents. Shafter Healthy Start parents and students had a great experience during the class with the University of California Agriculture and Natural Resources. Thank You!" - Shafter Healthy Start FRC
- Author: Andra Nicoli
- Author: Chutima Ganthavorn
- Contributor: Claudia Carlos
Alvord USD teachers implemented virtual physical activity with over 3,100 students in the first 3 months following CFHL, UCCE training during COVID-19 school closures, contributing to improved health for all and UC ANR's public value of developing healthy people and communities.
The Issue
During the COVID-19 pandemic stay-at-home orders, Riverside County schools, including Alvord School District, closed its school sites. This led teachers, many of whom were learning an array of remote educational skills for the first time, to attend district-sponsored professional development classes in order to reach over 18,000 students through new virtual platforms.
How UC Delivers
Six hundred teachers at Alvord Unified in Riverside County discovered ways to make physical activity breaks fun in the virtual classroom with lessons from the CalFresh Healthy Living, University of California Cooperative Extension (CFHL, UCCE) Riverside County team.
CFHL, UCCE presented a "Brain Breaks in the Virtual World" session to elementary, middle and high school teachers. The presentation included:
- four virtual physical activity break demonstrations
- a teacher resource list with links to virtual physical activity videos
The CalFresh Healthy Living, UC and UCCE Riverside County's virtual professional development training for teachers assisted them with skills to effectively reach the 18,000 students in the school district over the period of the pandemic.
The Impact
Teacher feedback about the professional development series was overwhelmingly positive:
Two hundred and thirty participants responded to a poll with 88% indicating that they are "very likely" or "likely" to schedule a physical activity break during their virtual lessons.
A follow-up survey verified that teachers began implementing virtual physical activity breaks, reaching over 3,100 students within 3 months of the training.
Qualitative feedback demonstrated appreciation and skill development:
"We believe that your workshop helped empower and reduce the anxiety of our teachers as they started the school year teaching over 18,000 students remotely using the technology and resources that we introduced during the summit." -AUSD Administrator
"I notice that they (students) are more energetic and talkative (which is what I want in my setting, peer collaboration) after a brain break. You can totally see a physical reaction after as well. The majority are sitting upright in front of their Chromebooks. I have also noticed more smiling." -AUSD teacher responded to the 3-month follow-up survey
According to the Physical Activity Guidelines for Americans (2018), regular moderate-to-vigorous physical activity reduces the risk of many chronic diseases among children and adults. This intervention fosters healthy childcare environments as part of UC ANR's commitment to promoting health and wellness in the community.
- Author: Betsy George
- Author: Carolyn D Rider
- Author: Janice Kao
- Contributor: Christina Becker
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SNAP-Ed practitioners adopt a practical, effective tool from UC ANR's NPI to evaluate program impact in schools, ECEs, after-school programs, and grocery stores, adding workforce capacity to public health agencies.
The Issue
In recent decades, increasing attention has been placed on improving access to healthy foods and opportunities to participate in physical activity in California communities with high rates of poverty and food insecurity. Schools and other places where children receive care are important partners in promoting wellness, as are the retail establishments where families purchase food. Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program Education (SNAP-Ed) interventions partner with these community sites to promote healthy eating and physical activity.
How UC Delivers
UC ANR's Nutrition Policy Institute (NPI) has developed and tested Site-level Assessment Questionnaires (SLAQs) to empower local health departments (LHDs) and other agencies working with schools, early childhood education centers (ECE), out-of-school programs, and grocery stores to perform annual assessments of wellness practices at each site. A SLAQ is a setting-customized, easy-to-use questionnaire comprised of multiple sections, each of which addresses a specific wellness domain, such as the school food environment or prominence of healthy food displays in a grocery store. Topic experts, including extension and SNAP-Ed professionals, education professionals with nutrition expertise, and academic researchers,reviewed SLAQs and provided valuable contributions regarding their questionnaire validity and content. The SLAQs were then pilot-tested in the field for feasibility, validity, and reliability.
Extension programs can partner with schools, ECEs, out-of-school programs, and grocery stores to use completed SLAQs to identify areas of need and create action plans for improvement. As sites perform annual reassessments, they receive concrete data that reflect the progress of their programs. SLAQ scores from multiple sites can be aggregated to measure the degree of health promotion in a community, a county, or across the state. Extension programs can also examine how improving health-promoting practices over time relates to changes in health outcomes.
The Impact
In the first year, SLAQs were implemented across 46 California counties receiving SNAP-Ed funding, including 161 schools, 144 ECE sites, 68 out-of-school programs and 87 grocery stores. Additionally, SLAQs were adopted for use by five California LHDs who received CDC SPAN funding and SNAP-Ed funded elementary schools in Washington.
Local SNAP-Ed implementing agencies are already working with sites to tailor interventions based on the individual site's areas of strengths and opportunities. SLAQ users appreciate having a standardized tool to gather data, pinpoint weaker areas of performance, and strengthen their efforts to improve the health of California's children. NPI's role in expanding science-based evaluation practices demonstrates UC ANR's commitment to promoting healthy people and communities. Maridet Ibanez, Project Director for Orange County Health Care Agency's CalFresh Healthy Living program, highlighted how SLAQs helped them create a “menu” of intervention options that they were ready and willing to collaborate with their sites to implement:
We were able to compare 10 different [ECE] sites. It was a uniform tool that we could use to assess our sites. This wouldn't have been possible without the SLAQs. - Maridet Ibanez, Project Director
- Author: Steven M. Worker
- Author: Martin H Smith
- Editor: Karen Giovannini
Multi-state youth education pilot results in 85% of 4-H participants improving their understanding of recycling and intention to help others recycle more, increasing civic engagement and contributing to UC ANR's public value of developing a qualified workforce.
The Issue
The generation of plastics has grown to over 381 million metric tons annually, nearly a 200-fold increase since 1950. Most of the plastic waste is disposed of in landfills (75%). Only 8% of plastic waste is recycled, and much plastic waste ends up in the world's oceans. Detrimental environmental effects from the production and disposal of plastics has been well-documented. While there have been large-scale campaigns to engage youth in recycling, different strategies are needed to help young people explore viable alternative options to mitigate the “plastic crisis.”
How UC Delivers
Through a multi-state collaboration with the NSF Center for Sustainable Polymers and Minnesota, California, and New York 4-H, Cooperative Extension educators worked to develop and pilot youth-focused curricula to introduce youth to the prevalence and impacts of plastics in everyday life. Experiential activities were designed to help youth learn that plastics are versatile materials that come with advantages and disadvantages. For example, plastic beverage containers are lightweight and durable, reducing energy needed for transportation. However, extraction and manufacturing contributes to climate change, and many plastics are produced for single-use and do not easily decompose. The curricula also introduce youth to the new ways scientists and engineers are working to develop bio-plastics in order to lessen effects on our environment.
The curricula were designed to build foundational skills of science and engineering: observation, asking questions and defining problems, planning and carrying out investigations, and communicating. The curricula are intended for delivery during out-of-school time and facilitated by educators such as trained volunteers or program staff. Three curricula are available for download and print copies are available from Shop 4-H (Note: only K-2 is available now, grades 3-5 and 6-8 are coming soon). The curricula were piloted with more than 300 youth.
The Impact
Findings from pilot outcome data included 4-H youth self-reporting that they learned some materials can be recycled and some cannot (89% of 161 youth) and that many things are made of plastic (86% of 155 youth). Youth also came up with ideas for how to care for the environment (87% of 158 youth) and expressed their intent to help family or friends recycle more (91% of 156 youth). While recycling plastic has some ecological benefits, not all plastics are recyclable, and recycling is not likely to be the only solution needed. Youth learned that the other 5 R's are important in finding sustainable solutions, including refusing plastics altogether, reducing use, reusing plastic items, repurposing plastic products, or purchasing plastics made with renewable materials that rot (compost). Place-Based Education research shows that integrating science learning with materials and experiences youth are familiar with helps lead to more meaningful and engaged learning , and thus, youth are more likely to be motivated to help improve their communities. In this way, this project and 4-H's work in the mission areas of science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) contributes to condition changes of improved civic engagement, increased college readiness, and increased ecological sustainability.
For more information, please contact Martin Smith, Specialist in Cooperative Extension, mhsmith@ucanr.edu; or Steven Worker, 4-H Youth Development Advisor, smworker@ucanr.edu
- Author: Ali Montazar
UC ANR research helps Southern California farmers conserve water by an average of 15% and encourages others to make region-specific crop management and irrigation decisions, contributing to UC ANR's public value of protecting California's natural resources.
The Issue
Water scarcity will become a more significant concern in the Colorado River Basin due to altered weather patterns and multi-year droughts. Knowledge of the evapotranspiration (ET) of crops produced in Southern California will be critical to better managing limited water resources. Accurate information on crop water use and crop coefficient (Kc) is an immediate need for on-farm water conservation programs in the low desert region. Growers, irrigation and water districts, and researchers typically use crop coefficients developed in the Central Valley or other areas. Formulating this irrigation information for the Southern California region is crucial since the region has differences in climate, soil types and conditions, cropping systems, and irrigation and farming practices.
How UC Delivers
Extensive field measurements were conducted in 53 commercial fields over the last three-year for 11 agricultural commodities, including alfalfa, carrots, onions, Klein grass, date palm, lemons, olives, sugar beets, spinach, sunflowers, and wheat. The residual of energy balance method, which used a combination of surface renewal (SR) and eddy covariance (EC) techniques, was used to determine the actual ET and crop coefficients in each site. In addition, Tule technology, an affordable crop water use measurement sensor, was set up at the experimental sites for extension purposes. Twenty fully automated SR-EC ET towers, 60 Tule technology sensors, and more than 700 other various soil moisture sensors were set up in the Imperial, Coachella, and Palo Verde valleys. The study's crop coefficients and irrigation management best practices were periodically shared with cooperative growers to evaluate their practices, learn about the advantages of sensor-based irrigation management, and encourage utilizing the tools and information to improve irrigation management and yield production. Additionally, the information was discussed with local irrigation and water districts in different events and meetings, and study findings were published in several extension articles and peer-reviewed journals.
The Impact
As a result of collaborating in this study, a cooperative date grower found that water use efficiency improved by 18%, puffy skin diseases of date fruits reduced, and fruit quality improved overall. The study, which includes nearly 50% of crops grown in the region, helped participating growers conserve water by 15% on average across various agricultural commodities. Furthermore, these findings provide evidence about the benefits of the residual of energy balance method, water use sensors, and soil moisture sensors specifically in southern California. The most accurate crop coefficients for the cropping systems and the best factual guidance available provide significant benefits to the region by supporting enhanced water and nutrient use efficiency and drought resilience information for profitable and sustainable crop production. The tools developed by this program have the potential to yield large dividends through not only improved resource use efficiency but also best management practices and crop quality. Local irrigation and water districts may utilize the information in their on-farm efficiency conservation and water delivery programs. Additionally, adopting these knowledge-based information and tools in combination with CIMIS (California Irrigation Management Information System) or Spatial CIMIS data may benefit the region more than $7.5 million in water and energy savings.
These outcomes demonstrate UC ANR's public value of protecting California's natural resources. The following links are publications associated with this study that have been shared in agricultural journal and research settings:
UC ANR Agricultural Brief: May 2021
Vegetables West July/August 2020 Issue
UC ANR Agricultural Brief: December 2019
UC ANR Agricultural Brief: July 2019
UC ANR Agricultural Brief: October 2018
UC ANR Agricultural Brief: July 2018
UC ANR Agricultural Brief: March 2018
