Fresno and Madera Counties' UC CalFresh Nutrition Education Program has a long-standing partnership with the Fresno State Dietetic Internship Program. This blog post is part of our Intern Reflections Series.
The University of California Cooperative Extension UCCE, UC CalFresh serves the Fresno and Madera counties with interactive nutrition education classes that get people motivated to eat healthier and increase physical activity. I greatly enjoyed working here because the work environment was encouraging and positive. The employees here practice what they preach. During our morning break, everyone in the office would go for a walk. Many employees packed their own lunch, which encouraged me to get back to meal prepping to ensure I have nutritious foods on hand. Everyone was kind and willing to help.
I had the luxury of observing five adult nutrition education classes. During the class, I observed and participated by encouraging the participants to ask us questions. I also had the opportunity to teach the physical activity portion in my final adult class.
During my first week with UC Cooperative Extension, I participated in two webinars. The Child Feeding Community of Practice, training webinar provided me with researched based child behavior techniques that can be applied to child feeding. I actively participated in conversation via live audio. The Spice it up! Putting Together a Low-Sodium Flavor Station in the School Cafeteria webinar provided easy suggestions on operating a low-sodium flavor station in the school cafeterias.
The theme of my nutrition corner board (pictured above) was “Eat the Rainbow”. This poster displays colorful visuals of various fruits and vegetables and highlights how each color contributes to beneficial health outcomes. The objective of this poster was to get children to consume a variety of fresh fruits and vegetables, associating each color of the rainbow with the nutrition it provides. My goal is to help children understand the importance of eating a variety of fruits and vegetables (different colors) in order to reap the many health benefits.