For Hispanic Heritage Month, Susana Matias Medrano, UCCE nutrition specialist at UC Berkeley, gave a public presentation in Spanish about nutrition.

As in previous years, UC ANR organized Hispanic-Latinx Heritage Month events to celebrate and recognize the contributions of Latinos to the United States. This year, three Zoom forums were held to raise awareness of the struggles of the Latino community in the U.S., their contributions and their future. In addition, three other forums offered the Latino community research-based information in Spanish on youth development, gardening and nutrition. The results were nothing short of amazing.  

First, we conducted a survey among News and Information Outreach in Spanish followers on social media. We learned that besides COVID-19, other topics of interest were nutrition, gardening (food sustainability), children's education, finances and employment. After that, we contacted advisors and volunteers of the UC Master Gardener, Nutrition and 4-H Youth Development statewide programs to work together and be our guest speakers at the forums celebrating Hispanic Heritage Month. 

These sessions were held on Oct. 6, 13 and 15 from 1 p.m. to 2:30 p.m. Right after the forums ended, we emailed an exit survey. The results revealed that 99% of the attendees responded positively to the session, speaker and topic, and 98% said they were interested in participating in other forums on the same topic or other topics. Only 1% of participants indicated that the topic could be treated differently, and 1% reported no interest in attending another forum.

When asked how they learned about the forums, 90% of attendees said they heard about them through our social networks, while 7% said they found out through a friend, and the remaining 3% did not remember how they heard about the sessions.

Among the attendees, 70% did not know about the relationship between UC ANR, the University of California, and UC Cooperative Extension. About 20% said they had vague knowledge about ANR, but did not know about Cooperative Extension. The other 10% said they knew about ANR and had previously participated in classes offered by UCCE, 4-H and CalFresh Healthy Living, UC.

Based on these results, we believe it is crucial to continue approaching the Spanish-speaking community in this way. Therefore, we will start a monthly online workshop introducing the different programs of UC ANR and UCCE.

We also emailed an exit survey to members of ANR and UC who participated in forums on stereotypes, discrimination against Latinos, and migrant Mexican indigenous communities. Only 0.1% of the attendees were not satisfied with the topics or with the invited speakers. While 1.9% indicated that the speaker was fine, but the issue may have been handled differently, 98% of attendees said they were satisfied with the topics and speakers and would return for similar events.

On average, 75 people attended out of the 155 who registered for each session. Signing up for Zoom may have created a barrier to participation. In the future, we will broadcast on Facebook Live, using the platform that many of the people who registered already use. 

Clockwise from top left: Ricardo Vela, Victor Villegas of Oregon State University, Bertha Felix, Christopher Gomez Wong and Beatriz Nobua-Berhrmann. The panelists, who all identify as Hispanic, discussed their varied ancestry on Sept. 15 for "One size doesn't fit all."

To see the recordings of the Zoom forums, click on the title below:

Sept. 15 - One size doesn't fit all 

Sept. 22 - Indigenous migrant communities – “The forgotten ones in the age of COVID-19”

Sept. 29 - Meet the Hispanic Heritage Month 2021 Honorees

Oct. 6 -  Ser mejores padres, cómo hacer de su hijo un líder

Oct. 13 - Cómo tener un huerto casero exitoso

Oct. 15 - El poder de una comida nutritiva

This story was first published in Notas de Nuestra Comunidad. To receive the newsletter, subscribe at https://lp.constantcontactpages.com/su/kBFzwZz/Comunidad.