Target Audience

North Dakota’s Family Nutrition Program(FNP) serves food stamp recipients and food stamp eligible North Dakotans of all ages, including youth, families with children, pregnant and parenting teens and older adults. FNP serves customers in all 53 of the state’s counties and on Indian Reservations. During the 2007 program year 45,364 unduplicated direct educational contacts and 360,747 indirect educational contacts (such as the monthly newsletter) were made with the target audience.

Objectives

The overall objective is to improve the likelihood that persons eligible for the Food Stamp Program will make healthy food choices within a limited budget and choose active lifestyles consistent with the Dietary Guidelines for Americans and the USDA Food Guidance System. Specifically, participants will:

• Make behavior changes to move closer to the recommendations of the Dietary Guidelines for Americans.
  
• Make food purchasing changes by employing money-saving strategies.
• Make food safety changes by sanitizing kitchen utensils and food preparation areas.
• Be assured access to enough food throughout the month.

While addressing these objectives, our focus on knowledge and behavior changes in 2007 was for participants to:

• Identify and increase consumption of nonfat or low-fat milk or milk products.
  
• Recognize the advantages of fruits/vegetables as snacks and increase consumption of fruits/vegetables as snack choices.
• Recognize whole grain products and understand the health benefits of whole grains, as well as increase the consumption of whole grain products.
• Increase knowledge about balancing calorie and activity levels in accordance with MyPyramid.

Partnerships and Collaborations

The North Dakota Department of Human Services (NDDHS) continues to be an especially strong partner. Referrals and access to the intended target audience from allied agencies are other important avenues of partnership for the Family Nutrition Program. FNP reaches people by delivering education at locations the audience frequents. This continues to be a strong feature of FNP’s success in North Dakota, as many food stamp recipients hold more than one part time job in order to make ends meet. They do not have many, if any, discretionary hours in a day to access nutrition education activities, so the FNP staff members take the education to the participant in locations where they may already be receiving services.

Evaluation of Impact

During the 2007 program year, goals were focused on several aspects of the dietary quality core area of nutrition education for food stamp recipients. Participants were surveyed after their involvement to determine the impact of each programming topic focus.

Survey results after FNP education indicate an increase in consumption of low-fat and nonfat milk products, whole grains, and fruits and vegetables as snacks.

Additionally, survey results show an increase in physical activity and knowledge of personal MyPyramid calorie and activity levels.

Before participating in food stamp nutrition education: 12.3% of respondents always made physical activity a regular part of their day 30.4% of respondents usually made physical activity a regular part of their day 25.4% of respondents knew their personal MyPyramid calorie and activity level Six weeks after participating in food stamp nutrition education: 81.9% of respondents make physical activity a regular part of their day 72.7% of respondents know their personal MyPyramid calorie and activity level

Dietary Quality

• "I didn't realize how good whole wheat foods are. They have a good flavor and are quite filling. I now choose whole wheat instead of white bread."

• "I made a good thing better by adding frozen vegetables to our box mix macaroni and cheese like you suggested and my family liked it."

• A woman who has been reluctant to switch to skim milk in the past says, "After seeing how much fat in the different kinds of milk in your display, I feel compelled to make the change. Seeing that fat is all it takes."

Food Purchasing

• One participant realized that when she actually sat down and wrote out a menu for one week, made a grocery list and bought only those items, she did save. She told me that now she tries to do a two week menu, leaving her to shop at the grocery store only once or twice to pick up milk and bread. She feels she is saving $30.00 to $40.00 per month because she is not picking up those extra items!

• "As I do my grocery shopping, I am paying more attention to the food labels. I am also using the unit prices at the store to determine if the product is a good buy."