BUY, COOK, EAT LOCAL Cooking demonstration project promotes healthy eating, farmer’s markets, and Extension services.
HEALTHY DIETS SAVE MONEY. A 2019 study in the Journal of the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics reported that eating well could lower the nation’s medical expenses by as much as $31.5 billion each year. While changing food habits isn’t easy, learning how to cook healthy food using farm fresh ingredients may help people improve their diets. An innovative program launched in spring 2023, “Market Fresh with Extension,” is lowering barriers to healthy eating by introducing people to fresh produce and other local foods. The program targets customers at farmer’s markets, providing practical and appealing suggestions for how to incorporate healthy fruits and vegetables into meals and snacks. The initiative not only promotes the benefits of eat- ing nutritious produce—which can help address the state’s growing obesity rates—it also encourages people to sup- port local producers, which strengthens local economies. Developed by a team at Pennsylvania State University Extension, in partnership with the university’s Department of Nutritional Science, “Market Fresh with Extension” com- bines in-person cooking demonstrations at farmer’s markets with a virtual component that teaches people how to use herbs and spices to flavor their food—instead of added sugars, saturated fat, and sodium. In addition to its health improvement and buy-local goals, “Market Fresh with Extension” also provides the Penn State team with a valuable opportunity to share its extensive resources and programs with new and existing audiences.
This Penn State team was one of five teams that received funding for work on nutrition and food safety through the 2023 New Technologies for Ag Extension (NTAE) pro- gram. During the project year, the team worked closely with Extension Foundation Catalysts and Key Informants to enhance their work. In this Q&A, we spoke with team members to learn more about their project and their NTAE experience.
Why did you apply for an NTAE grant?
Prior to NTAE, Penn State Extension partnered with the Uni- versity’s Department of Nutritional Sciences and McCor- mick Science Institute on education and research programs to promote spice and herb consumption. As part of that work, our team translated the 2020-2025 dietary guide- lines recommendations for herbs and spices to encourage more people to incorporate them in their cooking. Aaron Weibe, a communications and marketing Key Infor- mant for the foundation, told us about the grant opportunity after our team did a short webinar for Extension Foundation in April 2021. We realized that this might help us take this program to the next level. Another important goal for us is increasing awareness about Extension: who we are and what we do. By partner- ing with and attending local farmer’s markets to offer food demonstrations, we can expand our audience reach and promote our programs in more communities. Attendees leave the demo with a recipe and a postcard with a QR code that will take them to a resource page, which provides additional information. What have you learned as you’ve developed your program this year that has surprised you? Partnerships within our own institution are important. For example, we partnered with Brian Moyer, an Extension educator with our Business and Community Vitality Unit. Brian works very closely with farmer’s markets, and writes a monthly newsletter that he sends to market managers. Brian included information about “Market Fresh with Extension” ➤
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EXTENSION FOUNDATION/NTAE | 2022-2023 YEARBOOK
2022-2023 YEARBOOK | EXTENSION FOUNDATION/NTAE
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