This summer three UCCE programs including CalFresh Healthy Living, Master Food Preservers, and Master Gardeners collaborated with local libraries to teach nutrition, gardening, and food preservation skills to families through the Lompoc Library “Learn and Grow” series and the Santa Maria Teens Club. These three UCCE programs cover community education topics from the garden (Master Gardeners) to pantry (Master Food Preservers) to plate (CalFresh Healthy Living).  By bringing the three programs together there is potential to enhance learning and promote community health.

In Lompoc, more than 18 families participated in three, 90-minute sessions learning about growing food and preparing healthy recipes such as trail mix, limeade, and developing food preservation techniques by making refrigerator pickles.

Photo: UC Master Food Preservers in San Luis Obispo and Santa Barbara

In Santa Maria, the UC Master Food Preservers held a series of workshops for the Santa Maria Library Teens Club. In total, 75 teens learned about fermentation through making quick kimchi, and got to practice using an atmospheric steam canner to make Thai dipping sauce and chutney. UC Master Food Preservers also participated in Family Storytime about pizza and tacos at the Santa Maria Library where they demonstrated how to use the atmospheric steam canner to make salsa and 12 families took home food safety handouts and recipe cards. 

Increasing knowledge and skills around growing and preserving food and eating healthy has been shown to improve community health and wellness. 

Photo: UCCE

Families provided positive feedback with one community member stating: “What a fantastic lesson for children to learn, and great literacy to introduce as well.” 

"Thank you very much, my girl had a lot of fun and great activities. She was very happy" -Parent

Looking ahead, CalFresh Healthy Living, UCCE is back in the classroom for the new school year, partnering with teachers, food service staff, students, and families to teach nutrition, gardening, and promote healthy communities. Meanwhile, UC Master Food Preservers are in the middle of training a new cohort of volunteers in research-based practices of safe home food preservation.