Title : Addressing poor diet quality and food insecurity with multilevel community nutrition education in the United States
Abstract:
Nearly 1 in 4 households in the United States are food insecure and federally funded nutrition education is one method to help low-income families learn to eat healthy on a limited budget. Moreover, as few as 1 in 5 adults in the United States eat the recommended amount of fruits and vegetables in the Dietary Guidelines for Americans. Each year, the University of Tennessee Family and Consumer Sciences (UT FCS) department provides nutrition education classes for over 20,000 people and reaches over 1 million people through social marketing messages. This session will include lessons learned from UT FCS nutrition education programs that address food insecurity issues through multilevel interventions including a) direct education b)social marketing and c) policy, systems and environmental changes. Programs are implemented through community educators who form partnerships with community sites such as schools, substance abuse recovery centers, senior living homes, and elsewhere to provide real-world examples of healthy eating and food preparation.
Through real world case studies, attendees will learn effective methods for teaching food resource management skills like budgeting, shopping and meal preparation; how to develop, test and implement compelling social media messages that address food insecurity; and how to work with community organizations and coalitions to identify and promote food assistance resources. In Tennessee, these interventions result in over half of participants eating more fruit and vegetables and saving hundreds in annual food budgets. Multilevel interventions with a holistic perspective and an emphasis on nutrition creates significant behavior changes in individuals and ultimately prevents disease, reduces healthcare costs, and promotes food security.
Keywords: Nutrition, Food insecurity, Behavior change
