August/September 2003 Volume 7, Issue 3

Nutrition Education for Kansas Educators

Are you confused about nutrition resources in Kansas? Need help finding the right teaching tools for your class or program? Got questions? Let the Nutrition Spotlight shed a little light on your diet dilemma, plant some program ideas and help you create some excitement in your next nutrition-related class. We've collected information from several key nutrition education sources in Kansas, and summarized what they have to offer. Their contact information is conveniently included, in hopes that this issue of Nutrition Spotlight becomes a much-used reference in the program year or school term to come. While it would be impossible to include every nutrition education resource in this issue or even several issues, we hope that the variety highlighted here provides valuable assistance and raises awareness of just what's available, as well.

Take a few moments to learn about some of the nutrition education resources available across Kansas. We are pleased to have the opportunity to highlight some of the excellent work that is being done to enhance nutrition education. We hope you will contact the featured organizations that took time to contribute to this issue of Nutrition Spotlight, and let them know how they can assist you. (SP)

Best wishes in your nutrition education efforts!
The Nutrition Spotlight team
K-State Research and Extension
Department of Human Nutrition

Preparing University Students to Provide Nutrition Education for People with Limited Resources
During 2002 and 2003, 16 K-State students were employed as summer nutrition assistants for the Kansas Family Nutrition Program (FNP). The students, who were junior or senior undergraduates majoring in nutrition or dietetics, worked full-time for one or two months promoting nutrition and community health among those with limited resources.
 
The students stayed extremely busy assisting K-State Research and Extension FNP county agents in presenting a multitude of nutrition education programs. The programs targeted audiences who covered the life span families, groups of young children, youth, teens, pregnant teens and women, adults, those with disabilities, and older adults and were held in many different community locations, such as WIC/maternal and infant clinics, Head Starts, child care centers, middle and high schools, senior centers, libraries, community centers and hospitals.
 
Students prepared for their community nutrition education work experience prior to arriving in their assigned county FNP Extension office by completing the KSU course HN 520, Nutrition Education in Extension. This new one-credit class provided an overview of community nutrition education and introduced students to the use of educational tools common to providing local nutrition education. The course also helps students learn how to tailor information and educational strategies to meet the nutrition needs and interests of the varying audiences they will serve.
 
Students are matched by the course instructor to interested county FNP Extension agents according to their preferences for audience type and nutrition topics, as well as by any time constraints and placement preferences that they may have for the summer.
The unique collaboration benefits people with limited resources, who receive nutrition education to improve their food choices and health. It offers a chance for participating counties and local community organizations to offer their clients nutrition education programs during the summer taught by temporary FNP staff who have specialized knowledge about nutrition and who are enthusiastic and eager to conduct nutrition education programs.
 
The program also benefits the students, who gain invaluable individualized mentoring and "real world" practical work experiences and life skills early in their professional careers. They learn first-hand about the challenges and rewards of planning for and sharing nutrition information with local individuals and families with limited resources. 
(MH)

American Dietetic Association and Kansas Dietetic Association

Not a registered dietitian? Information from these two organizations will still be of great benefit to you in your nutrition programming The American Dietetic Association and Kansas Dietetic Association are devoted to promoting optimal nutrition, health, and well-being for all. The educational information and resources are unparalleled in scope, accuracy, and cost. Visit www.eatright.org and you'll find a "Tip of the Day," "Monthly Feature," in addition to: 1) Food and Nutrition Information; 2) Product Catalog, and 3) Government Affairs.

Professional's Guide to Popular Dietary Supplements," a resource cited in the 2002 FACS lesson on Complementary and Alternative Medicine and a useful tool to broaden programming beyond the lesson.

Government Affairs
Food and nutrition policy issues are described with action ideas for consumers. Links include government food and health related offices and agencies as well as individual states. Linking to the Kansas state web page provides information about Kansas State government, boards and commission, city governments, as well as 34 county governments in Kansas.
 
If you are a registered dietitian and a member of the American Dietetic Association, exclusive "member only" pages enhance your practice and connections.

Food and Nutrition Information
This page includes links to other organizations, responses to frequently asked questions posed by consumers, Good Nutrition Reading List, Healthy Lifestyle Tips, and Nutrition Fact Sheets. These fact sheets partner nicely with K-State Research and Extension materials. For example, "Whole Grains for Healthful Eating Recipe," may work with Mary Higgins' 2002 FACS lesson on whole grains. "Healthy Weight, Healthy You" and "Fad Diets: What You May be Missing Recipe" combine nicely with the 2003 Weigh to Diet lesson by Barbara Lohse.

Product Catalog
Learn about a wide variety of nutrition publications for consumers as well as educators and other professionals. Currently featured on this website is "The Health
 
The Kansas Dietetic Association website, http://www.ksu.edu/eatrightkansas/, also provides information related to food and nutrition legislation as well has a consumer section for Hot Topics and consumer questions. Fact sheets in Hot Topics are accurate and handy nutrition programming resources. Issues such as holiday eating and supersizing of America are addressed.
 
An important feature of both the American and Kansas Dietetic Associations is to help you locate a registered dietitian in your area either for personal counseling or education.
 
Nutrition programming will never be better than when it is accompanied by information from ADA and KDA. To contact ADA by phone or mail, call 800-877-1600 or write:
 
American Dietetic Association, 120 South Riverside Plaza, Suite 2000, Chicago, IL 60606-6995.  (BL)

Kansas Nutrition Network
What is the Kansas Nutrition Network (KNN)? Well, that's not so easily answered. We've tried to put together an "elevator talk" description of who we are and what we do. That is, "If someone in an elevator asks what you do, how can you respond in the few seconds it takes to get to your destination?" Let's hope you are going up lots of floors so we can give you a long "elevator talk" description of KNN.
 
First of all, we're funded the same way that the Family Nutrition Program (FNP) is funded. So, we're a part of the food stamp nutrition education program, and our ultimate target audience is low income persons.
 
We're a partnership of agencies. We work with agencies that provide nutrition and physical activity education, such as the Kansas Beef Council, Midwest Dairy Council, and the Kansas Wheat Commission; and agencies that provide nutrition resources, such as Heartland SHARE, WIC, and food stamps. We also partner with organizations such as Kansas Child Care Training Opportunities (KCCTO) and Kansas Association of Community Action Programs (KACAP) whose major emphasis is not specifically nutrition. There are about 20 KNN partner agencies.
 
Our goal is to develop and support partnerships among the partner agencies to improve the health of low income Kansans. One project we're working on for next year is coordinating an "event" in one community. We want to bring resources from all our partner agencies together during a particular week to raise awareness about nutrition and physical activity particularly among low income persons in that community. So, the Head Start classrooms might highlight a nutrition activity that week and send home Heartland SHARE, WIC, and food stamp information. The senior center could perhaps do a physical activity project using Vita Bands. They could distribute information about Heartland SHARE and food stamps, and maybe provide some simple, low cost beef, wheat or dairy recipes. We've just begun to discuss this at our KNN meetings, and already our partner agencies are coming up with some creative ideas of how to highlight nutrition and physical activity during that particular week.
 
When we work with our partner organizations to do things like this, we want to eventually make these projects available to everyone who wants them. We worked on developing the Ready, Set, Cook event and now those boxes are available for checkout from Heartland SHARE. We hope this current community event can become something that many communities will want to implement, and we want to be able to help make that happen.
 
Is the elevator ride ending now? We hope this information has been helpful to you. If we give you a call asking you to partner with us on a project, we hope you'll say yes. And, if you have a project that you think might be interesting that could involve our partner agencies, give us a call.   (KF)
 
Kansas Nutrition Network 316-262-7636
Karen Fitzgerald, MS, RD, LD
Barb Roths, RD, LD
Sally Price, Office Professional

Kansas Child Care Training Opportunities, Inc.

If you want to get nutrition education to child care providers, Kansas Child Care Training Opportunities, Inc. is your connection. KCCTO has about 200 approved community-based trainers with the potential to reach 14,000 child care providers in Kansas.
 
Two courses of the 34 KCCTO courses KCCTO trainers are devoted to nutrition: Nutrition: Good for You!, a 10-hour course, and Breastfed Infants and You, a 2-hour course. KCCTO is the distributor agency for these two courses. A fourth of KCCTO courses address nutrition and children in the content.
 
The KCCTO Statewide Training Office in Manhattan houses the training materials and checks them out to the approved trainers throughout Kansas.
KCCTO worked closely with the Early Childhood Action Team through the Kansas Nutrition Network to edited the 2002 update of Nutrition: Good for You!, first developed by the Kansas LEAN PreSchool Task Force in the early 1990s. The curriculum sees child care providers as a link to parents and communities for encouraging nutrient dense foods, sharing food tasks, awareness of oral health, and promoting movement.
 
Newly created for this edition is Lesson 3, "Let's Move, Learn, and Have Fun!" Integral to the lesson is a 16-minute video that features real caregivers and children in their care demonstrating movement for three- to five-year-olds. The video won an award from the Kansas Public Health Association.
 
KCCTO piloted the 2001 revised edition of Breastfed Infants and You curriculum. Mary Washburn, breastfeeding coordinator for Kansas Department of Health and Environment Nutrition and WIC Services, in cooperation with the Early Childhood Action Team updated the version she created earlier. KCCTO encourages KCCTO trainers to offer the two-hour course in conjunction with local Kansas WIC agency breastfeeding coordinators.
 
If you are interested in becoming a KCCTO trainer, go to the KCCTO website at www.kccto.org and click on "Applications" on the home page. If you are interested in ordering a trainer manual for Nutrition: Good for You! and the award-winning video, click on the home page option of "Nutrition: Good for You!" and then choose "Order Form." You can also reach KCCTO by phone at 800-227-3578 or by fax at 785-532-7732.   (CH)

Kansas Wheat Commission 
The Kansas Wheat Commission offers education materials about crop production and nutrition. The materials include education packets for preschool, elementary and secondary; videos; posters; food, nutrition and fitness information; and foodservice, restaurant and bakery information. The Commission also has spokespersons across the state who speak to classrooms and other groups about wheat production and wheat products. Materials and spokesperson programs are free to Kansas educators. Many of the educational materials are available online at www.kswheat.com, and an order form can be printed from the Web site as well. To schedule a spokesperson program for your classroom, contact Cindy Falk at cfalk@kswheat.com, or call toll-free at 866-75WHEAT. Additional resources are available from the Wheat Foods Council, www.wheatfoods.org.   (KW)

Kansas Beef Council
Kansas Beef Council values your role as a Health Educator who provides the public with nutrition and health information that they can trust.
 
As producers and marketers of the nation's beef supply, we are committed to providing a wholesome, nutritious food. To help us communicate accurate information about beef's nutritional qualities and the role of beef in a healthful diet, we need your assistance.
 
Following is a brief sampling of our current materials available at this time:
 
General Nutrition/Fitness
• Childhood Nutrition Tear Pad - presents mom with basic information on the nutritional needs of children from birth to five years.
• The Tween Scene - prepares parents and health advisors with information needed to convince tweens that the foods they choose to eat will affect how they look, feel and perform.
• Fit for a King (Video Kit for 2-4 Grades) - developed with The American Academy of Pediatrics and The American Dietetic Association, this kit includes an eight-page leader's guide, a nine-minute video, eight activity sheets, a 34" x 22" Food Guide Pyramid poster, the kid's activity pyramid and a pre/post test.
• It's All About You Nutrition Communicators Tool Kit (Video Kit) - developed by the Dietary Guidelines Alliance to support nutrition communicators as they help consumers achieve healthy, active lifestyles.
• Fueled for Flight (Video Kit for 5th-6th Grades) - features NASA astronauts and experts to educate 5th-6th grade students about the principles of energy, and our body's need for energy.
• Food Guide Pyramid Full-Color Tear Pad - illustrates the Food Guide Pyramid. On the reverse side of each sheet detailed information is provided about estimating your own food pattern based on individual needs and determining sizes for your favorite foods.
• Food Guide Pyramid Full-Color Poster - depicts the Food Guide Pyramid, developed by the U. S. Department of Agriculture and the U. S. Department of Health and Human Services. Five panels on the reverse side may be photocopied and used as handouts with high school and adult audiences.
• Everyday Solutions for Everyday Heroes Tear Pad - highlights a variety of important behaviors and actions that help women - Everyday Heroes - get through their busy days. There is a particular focus on nutrition, sleep and physical activity and how all these elements are critical to a healthy lifestyle.
• Relax, Recover, Renew Lifestyles Tear Pad offers tips and strategies to help women - Everyday Heroes - find balance in their lives and deal with stress. It emphasizes the need for good nutrition and physical activity as well as the importance of prioritizing and simplifying all facets of life.
• Eating for 2? - offers helpful tips for meeting the increased nutritional demands of pregnancy. Explains the function of those nutrients essential to the development of a healthy baby during pregnancy and lactation.
• The Fitness Connection - emphasizes the importance and lists the benefits of fitness to all life stages. Offers numerous tips for fitting physical activity into hectic lifestyles.
 
Full-Color Handouts
• Ground Beef:  Low in Fat, High in Nutrients • When it Comes to Nutrition, Beef has a Competitive Advantage
• Ground Beef Nutrient Comparisons (new chart) • Fatty Acid Profile of Beef
• Go for the Ground Beef • Nutrient Comparisons of Meat, Poultry and Seafood
• Choose Your Calories by the Company They Keep
• There are Twelve Cuts of Beef that Meet the Government Labeling Guidelines for Lean...
 
Providing resources for education outreach efforts is a priority for Kansas beef producers. That is why all of our materials are currently available free of charge to educators and health professionals. Feel free to contact Sue Holbert, R.D., L.D. at sue@kansasbeef.org  or call (785) 273-5225. You can also visit one of our many websites: www.BeefItsWhatsForDinner.org  (consumer website), www.beefnutrition.org  (health professional website, and www.Ccool-2b-Real.com  (youth website).   (SH)

Kansas Nutrition Council Collaborates to Serve Members

Collaboration is the key to success in many projects, and nutrition professionals can find that partnership through membership in the Kansas Nutrition Council (KNC). KNC membership includes dietitians, teachers, food service personnel, dietary managers, child care consultants, commodity groups, county extension agents, nutritionists who contract privately and others.

The diversity of our members helps us keep abreast of timely nutrition issues. Our focus is simple: To provide a high quality conference annually that provides update on a timely nutrition issue. Recent conferences have focused on childhood obesity (Childhood Overweight: A Healthy Future Weights in the Balance - 2003), social marketing nutrition campaigns (Selling Health: Getting Consumers To Bite - 2002), the truth about dieting (Big Fat Lies - 2001), and sports nutrition featuring Nancy Clark.
 
The 2004 conference will be April 2, 2004 in Wichita. Further information will appear in our newsletter as plans for the conference take shape.
 
KNC can best serve nutrition professionals by having an active membership. The annual dues fee of $15 provides a reduced conference registration and four newsletters. Each newsletter includes an educational leaflet that one of our members has found helpful, along with ordering information.
If you would like to join the Kansas Nutrition Council, or are currently a member and would like to be more active on a committee, please contact any of the officers:
 
President: Cindy Evans                                     Secretary: Sandy Perkins
(W) 785-232-0062 ext. 12                             (W) 785- 296-1323
President-Elect: Staci Hendrickson                 Treasurer: Karen Blakeslee
(H) 785-887-1044                                         (W) 785-532-1673
President-Elect-Elect: Sharolyn Jackson         Membership: Beverly Stafford
(W) 785-537-6350                                         (W)785-421-2135
(CE)

Body Walk Visits Local Schools
The traveling Body Walk exhibit has just completed its first year of visits to Kansas elementary schools. Body Walk is a unique Kansas educational program designed to involve kindergarten through fifth grade students in learning the skills and choices for a healthy lifestyle. Children learn about the importance of good nutrition choices and being physically active by walking through the 35-foot by 40-foot enclosed exhibit. Developed and operated by Nutrition Services, Kansas State Department of Education, Body Walk travels to local schools in its own 1-ton truck. At each school, the Body Walk manager (who is also the truck driver) works with volunteers who set up the exhibit in the school gym.
 
Students begin their Body Walk as they enter the first body station, the brain, through an ear. Once inside the huge dome, students experience "brain waves" and learn about brain function. In the second station, students (in groups of 8 to10) put on food tags designating them as different food items such as a carrot, hamburger or piece of cheese. They proceed into the larger-than-life mouth, then continue through the esophagus tunnel to the stomach dome, are "absorbed" in the small intestine tunnel and follow the path of nutrients to the heart, lung, bone, muscle and skin stations. At each of the Body Walk stations, a volunteer presenter engages the students in a five-minute activity focused on healthy choices.
 
Body Walk has been well-received by students and teachers alike. Asked if he liked Body Walk, one student said, "Well, actually I loved it!" Many other students have described Body Walk as "awesome," "fun" or "cool". Teachers say that students are retaining the information learned in Body Walk because it is a "hands-on" experience that makes learning fun.
 
Over 33,000 students participated in Body Walk during the past school year. To learn more about Body Walk and see the exhibit "in action", go to the website www.bodywalk.org . The school schedule for 2003-2004 is also posted on the website. If you have questions on Body Walk, please contact the project director, Joyce Kemnitz, at 785-494-2654 or jkemnitz@ksde.org .  (JK)

Midwest Dairy Council

The National Dairy Council has been focusing on nutrition research and education since its creation 80 years ago.  Since forming in the year 2000, the Midwest Dairy Council has supported nutrition education that targets the following audiences:

Schoolage children:   To teachers of second and fourth grades throughout Kansas, it sends classroom programs called Pyramid Café and Pyramid Explorations.  To access the other suggested programs, handouts and lesson plans for other grade levels, educators can go to www.midwestdairy.com and click on Schools.  

Health professionals:  For their patients and clients, MDC provides to nurses, dietitians and physicians handouts on calcium in high blood pressure, osteoporosis and even weight loss. 

Consumers:  Through appearances on TV, radio and newspapers, MDC offers 1-to-a-customer brochures on healthy eating and cooking, usually targeted to moms.

The program manager for Kansas health professionals and consumers is Melissa Hooper, 913/345-2225 or mhooper@midwestdairy.com.  The school contacts in Kansas are Jane Byrnes-Bennett, 316/721-5300 or jbyrnes-bennett@midwestdairy.com; and for Douglass, Johnson, Leavenworth and Wyandotte counties, Vickie Diesel, 913/345-2225 or vdiesel@midwestdairy.com. 

MDC nutrition education materials are at no cost.  Their Sampler Packet includes ready-to-copy pages for children, teens and adults plus the catalog and order form of the National Dairy Council.  Phone 877-487-5033 or fax 877-228-7869. (JB)

K-State Research and Extension
No compilation of nutrition education resources in Kansas would be complete without the mention of K-State Research and Extension. It is the mission of K-State Research and Extension Family and Consumer Science to link education with life experiences to help people improve their lives, their families, and their communities. To nutrition educators, that means Extension makes research-based information available and accessible - in a variety of easy-to-use formats.
 
For many people, access to Extension is as nearby as the county extension office, where a wide variety of factual and current nutrition information is available For others, a website may be the key to timely, research-based assistance. Nutrition programs designed to meet local needs are offered across Kansas by county, area and state Extension faculty.
 
Additionally, K-State Research and Extension delivers nutrition education for limited-resource audiences through two specific efforts --the Family Nutrition Program and EFNEP-- the Expanded Food and Nutrition Education program.
 
The Family Nutrition Program (FNP) is designed to improve the nutrition status of Kansans of all ages who receive or are eligible to receive food stamps. Participants learn to choose and prepare nutritious meals, balance the food they eat with physical activity, use safe food handling practices and manage their food resources. FNP is currently in over eighty counties in Kansas.
 
The Expanded Food and Nutrition Education program, or EFNEP, will be celebrating its 35th year of helping young families with limited resources make healthy food choices so that over time, those choices become healthy habits. In Kansas, the EFNEP program is presently at work in three counties --Sedgwick, Shawnee and Crawford.
 
In addition to these two programs, K-State Research and Extension develops and delivers a wide range of nutrition education pieces and programs to meet the needs of Kansans of all ages, all across the state. Stop by your local county Extension office to see what's available for your nutrition education needs.

Contributing Writers Make This Issue Possible
 
This special issue of Nutrition Spotlight is the result of the collaboration of a special group of contributors. In addition to our Nutrition Spotlight team, several other nutrition educators and collaborators provided written descriptions of the role their organization can play in your nutrition programming. We would like to thank them for their contributions, and we hope you will contact them (see contact details on each page) for more information about their organization.
 
• Karen Fitzgerald, Kansas Nutrition Network
 
• Carol Hockersmith, Kansas Child Care Training Opportunities, Inc.
 
• Cindy Falk, Kansas Wheat Commission
 
• Cindy Evans, Kansas Nutrition Council
 
• Joyce Kemnitz, Body Walk
 
• Sue Holbert, Kansas Beef Council

• Jane Byrnes-Bennett, Midwest Dairy Council

(SP)

Contributors

Shelly Burklund
Spotlight Producer

Sandy Procter, MS, RD, LD
Spotlight Editor and Coordinator, Expanded Food and Nutrition Education Program (EFNEP)

Barbara Lohse Knous, PhD, RD, LD
Extension Specialist, Nutrition

Mary L. Meck Higgins, PhD, RD, LD
Extension Specialist, Nutrition Education

Karen Hudson, MEd, RD, LD
Coordinator, Family Nutrition Program (FNP)

Kathy Walsten
Nutrition Educator, FNP and EFNEP

Judy Speer
Graphic Design and Layout
Toni Bryant
Assistant Coordinator, Family Nutrition Program

Questions or concerns about this publication? Contact Shelly Burklund, 207 Justin Hall, Manhattan, KS 66506, Phone: (785) 532-1670, FAX: (785) 532-1678