Healthy Community Outreach Program

Healthy Community Outreach Program

Moore Family Center

Outreach

The Moore Family Center for Whole Grain Foods, Nutrition and Preventive Health selects community-based projects to receive funding through the Healthy Community Outreach Program.

Partners in this statewide program work to improve the nutrition and food environment in underserved communities across Oregon in collaboration with colleagues in the OSU Extension Service and local community health partners. The program’s goal is to empower local communities to work together to improve the lifelong health of Oregonians where they live, work, learn and play in ways that stimulate innovation and collaboration.

These grants are made possible by generous new funding from the Moore family to the OSU College of Health.

2021 funded projects

Project Leaders: Stephanie Russell, Victor Villegas

The ¡Viva Vegi-Vida! Project will use social media to promote fun, Spanish language videos that highlight the importance of a plant-based diet rich in vegetables, herbs and whole grains. Five culturally centered videos will be produced featuring puppets and will demonstrate use of healthy, culturally appropriate ingredients that are easy to obtain in Oregon.

Project Leaders: Paolina Mulleneix and Patty Case

This project will expand the SNAP Ed programs reach to rural communities and limited youth and adults Klamath Extension. A college student will be hired to develop cooking tool kits, deliver hybrid classes and support new and existing Cooking Matters courses. As a result, the student will gain practical experience in food education and a deeper understanding of the opportunities and barriers to accessing healthy foods in a rural community. Each participating family in a class will be given a free meal kit sourced in collaboration with the Klamath-Lake County Food Bank.

Project Leaders: Danita Macy, Olivia Davis, Lauren Tobey

The OSU SNAP Ed program and Food Hero project is thrilled to be able to partner with Chef Nephi Craig (White Mountain Apache and Navajo) to develop and prepare new indigenous-centered recipes featuring whole grains. The new recipes were unveiled in a live streamed event in May 2022, promoted on social media and directly sent to enrolled tribal members across Oregon. Each participant received a package of Bob’s Red Mill whole grain quinoa and the recipe materials in order to recreate Chef Craig’s recipe at home.

Healthy Community Outreach 2020 full grant recipients

Project leaders: Adejoke Babatunde and Maureen Quinn Lores

This project will work with several community partners including Play Grow Learn, Beyond Black Community Development Corp. and other local agencies serving black families and youth in the Rockwood, Gresham area. This project will use the Oldways Curriculum, A Taste of African Heritage to promote food preparation skills using whole grains and participating families will receive kits with information, whole grains and locally-grown food to cook together.  The project will also train local teens interns to be advocates for health in their community.

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Project leaders: Lauren Tobey and Tina Dodge

The COVID-19 pandemic has changed when and where kids eat school meals. For the near future, the school food environment will be at home more days than not. Working in partnership with the Corvallis School District Food Service, Oregon Dairy and Nutrition Council, Corvallis Environmental Center, Oregon Department of Education Child Nutrition Services, the OSU Extension Food Hero Campaign will help kids to thrive by supporting their physical, emotional and mental health.  This project will provide families participating in school meals with recipe ingredient kits that empower youth with hands-on food preparation skills, while providing all the components of a USDA reimbursable school meal or snack. The recipes will focus on the Food Hero core message of being healthy, fun, fast, tasty and readily consumable to youth with limited resources, including homeless students. The ingredients all presented in a nutrition messaged ecofriendly package with clear instructions in English and Spanish.  This fun and action packed recipe card will be enhanced with unboxing videos.

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Project Leaders: Danita Macy, Glenda Hyde and Joanne Lyford

This project engages several Native-serving organizations in the Portland area, including Native American Youth and Family Services (NAYA), 7 Waters Canoe Family, Natives for Community Engagement and Equity with OHSU-PSU School of Public Health, and Oregon State University Extension Service to promote food security and food sovereignty. Working within indigenous communities, individuals will gain skills to preserve tasty, healthy, traditional and Native-grown foods safely. The project also establishes two lending libraries stocked with food preservation equipment for community members to use for preserving foods at home.  Train the trainer materials and culturally appropriate food preservation publication will also be created.

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Healthy Community Outreach 2020 mini-grant recipients

Project leader: Mandy Hatfield, SNAP-Ed Douglas County.

This project aims to reach millions of people to increase food safety habits, especially for those eligible for SNAP benefits in Oregon. Objectives include development of food safety tools and messaging around seven food safety practices for the Food Hero Social Marketing Campaign.

Project leader: Barbara Brody, 4-H, SNAP-Ed, FCH Malheur County.

This 4-H/SNAP-Ed Teens as Teachers project will partner with rural, under-served schools in Grant and Malheur counties to train the next generation of nutrition and healthy eating champions who will deliver evidenced-based lessons to youth in elementary schools within their communities.

Project leader: Erin Devlin, SNAP-Ed, FCH Clackamas County

The goal is to reinvigorate the Molalla StoryWalk project by supporting a local champion to repair signage and promote the project in the context of a new opportunity while schools and libraries are closed. During times of social distancing and online learning, the StoryWalks are extremely applicable because they allow for reading in public with adequate space between families.

The 2019 Moore Family Center funded projects

 Maureen Hosty (PI), Extension 4-H Youth Faculty and Leonard and Brenda Aplet Financial Literacy Endowed Professor, and SNAP-Ed Program Coordinator Joanne Lyford (Co-PI)

This 4-H Teens as Teachers project will work with partnering schools in north Portland to train the next generation of nutrition and healthy eating champions. Twenty-eight high school sophomore students from Roosevelt high school are teaching health, nutrition and cooking classes to 36 third- and fourth- graders from neighboring James John Elementary School. Roosevelt High school students are trained by 4-H and SNAP-Ed extension staff using a hybrid learning model. In addition to on-site trainings, the high school students will complete an online OSU Teens as Teachers course being developed with funds from the Moore Family Center grant.

 SNAP-ED Coordinator Stephanie Russell (PI), and SNAP-Ed Education Program Assistants Beatriz Botello and Jennifer Pettit

This project will work in partnership with local organizations to distribute seeds and nutrition information in low-income communities as well as provide immigrant and refugee families with information and education on how to navigate the challenging growing conditions on the Oregon coast in a culturally and linguistically appropriate way. The collaborative project will engage many stakeholders including OSU Extension Food Hero, 4-H, OSU’s Agriculture and Horticulture Program and local community partners including DHS, Centro de Ayuda and Lincoln County Food Share.

CPHHS Senior Instructor Cheryl Kirk (PI) and Assistant Professor of Practice in Horticulture Sara Runkel (Co-PI)

This project seeks to improve the health and social/emotional well-being of low-income seniors and youth through nutrition and garden-based education. Project participants will construct an ADA accessible garden on the grounds of a Senior Resource Center in conjunction with local Master Gardener volunteers and will test SNAP-Ed messaging for older adults. In addition, the project will work with the Josephine County Food Bank’s farm to enhance its capacity to host school field trips and support school- based garden education through the creation of a network of school garden coordinators.

SNAP-Ed Program Coordinator Angie Treadwell (PI)

In Umatilla and Morrow Counties, rates of obesity and diabetes exceed state averages and disproportionately affect Hispanic families, a significant demographic. OSU Extension SNAP-Ed, in partnership with Familias en Acción, will train local Latinx leaders to provide nutrition education and resources to address food and health inequities contributing to chronic disease and develop and support Latinx community wellness advocates. Project staff will use OSU Extension Food Hero resources to evaluate and expand culturally appropriate programming and resources for nutrition outreach and engagement.