- Author: Chris M. Webb
The USDA has a collection of materials designed to improve nutrition and increase physical activity. Each curriculum focuses on a different target audience, but all share the goal of reducing our country’s obesity problem. Some of the materials are available in English and Spanish. A summary of each is shown below. Follow the links to learn more!
- Secrets of Feeding a Healthy Family: How to Eat, How to Raise Good Eaters, How to Cook is a book written to bring back the joy of eating and cooking. This book has thirteen chapters which address topics of cooking, attitudes about food, and eating behaviors.
- Fruit, Vegetable, and Physical Activity Toolbox for Community Educators is a tool kit complete with nutrition and physical activity lessons, handouts, poster, produce guide, playing cards, media disc, discussion guide, small pamphlets, and learning tools. The lessons are well organized and include a variety of topics such as grocery shopping, recipe preparation, and healthy eating on the go
- Instant Recess DVD and Users' Guide is a 15 minute DVD which includes exercises that can be done anywhere. The exercises do not require any equipment and are done at a slow pace so anyone can participate. Along with the DVD, a small booklet for educators is included that provides information and tips on exercise, hydration, and how to use the DVD effectively.
- Nutrition Detectives is a DVD geared towards elementary-aged school children. This curriculum teaches children the importance of food labels and how to read them. The DVD is rich with animation and entertaining games, and features a question/answer section toward the end which explains how the DVD can be used effectively with children.
- Pyramid Plus: Real life nutrition for teens is a curriculum to help motivate teens to make healthy nutrition choices. This resource includes 9 lessons and a CD with supporting materials. The lessons are very diverse and cover topics such as nutrient rich foods to body acceptance.
- Author: Chris M. Webb
The global marketplace increases the likelihood of invasive pest and diseases entering California. Invasive pests and diseases can affect agricultural productivity, public health, natural resource biodiversity, and water quality and quantity.
The threat of invasive pests and disease is real in Ventura County. Please do your part in minimizing the potential impacts by:
- staying informed about local invasive pest and disease threats.
- notifying the CDFA or County Ag Commissioner if a suspected invasive pest is found.
- following guidelines and procedures designed to minimize the spread of pests and disease.
The current top invasive pest and disease threats to Ventura County, and what you can do to help, can be found on our previous blog posts.
Monitoring waterways for invasive quagga and zebra mussels
Invasive species in the Santa Clara River
- Author: Chris M. Webb
Government entities throughout Ventura County are working with residents to address issues that affect us all – namely: county economy, transportation/congestion, housing costs and climate change.
The process began last fall with Map-the-Future workshops. The results of the workshops have been summarized into three models that show what our cities might look like in the future.
We are all invited to attend an upcoming Sustainability Summit in person or participate online to:
- see the results of the Map-the-Future workshops
- consider various simulations of our county’s future
- explore the consequences to families, the economy and the environment of the various futures
- tell your leaders what you like and don’t like about each simulation.
Sustainability Summits will be held in April. For dates and locations click here.
- Author: Chris M. Webb
Ever wonder what 4-Her’s do? They are busy for sure! Read the following Featured Club Happening, to find what has been happening in the Chief Peak club submitted by club leader Jackie Larson.
Chief Peak meets in Upper Ojai where most of our members live. If you don’t know where that is you can find it up the mountain on HWY 150 between Ojai and Santa Paula.
We have been meeting at Summit School for over 50 years and we’re about as rural as Ventura County gets. The little school we meet at has about 50 kids total and about 10 % of them are 4-Hers. A lot of the parents in our club were members when they were kids. Once 4-H is in your blood it seems to stay there.
Although we may be small in numbers we are mighty in spirit. Our biggest project this year is Market Swine with 17 kids expecting to go to fair this year. Our Mini Horse project marched in the Ojai 4th of July parade along with a trip to Quick Silver Ranch in Solvang. Our Pygmy Goat project is growing by leaps and bounds and this year there will be bouncing babies everywhere. We also have Photography, Scrapbooking, Arts & Crafts, Archery, Beef, Horse, and Rabbits. We’re hoping to get a Science Project going this upcoming year as well.
Community service is a very important part of our club. Last year we collected donations for soldiers in Afghanistan and mailed off 6 big boxes of treats and supplies to them. Each November in the last few years, we have collected and bagged snacks for the Homeless Shelter Program in Ojai along with sponsoring one of the dinners served at the shelter. We cook all the food and deliver it to the church serving the dinner and some of the older members stay and help serve. We participate in TOTSOCE by bringing in our own donations since we don’t really have neighborhoods to trick or treat in. In December we got together for our annual Holiday Cookie Baking Party. Covered in flour we baked dozens and dozens of cookies for the shelter and ourselves.
The 4-H Featured Club Happenings is part of Cloverlines, our 4-H newsletter. These newsletters can be found on our office website.
- Author: Chris M. Webb
As we move out of our rainy season, many of us will again rely on sprinkler systems to water our lawns. UC ANR has a great publication for optimizing water use on lawns. Easy to follow instructions are provided to help people reduce water use in three steps:
- Determine if your grass is a warm-season or cool-season variety
- Determine the output of your sprinklers
- Determine how many minutes you need to water your lawn each week
This resource can by found by clicking here.
For additional related topics please see our previous posts:
There is only one week left to register for this year’s Watershed U series. The course will cover the Ventura River Watershed. See our previous blog post for details and registration!