Program Is Fighting Hunger Through Nutrition Education

Tue., March 11, 1997

Elana Ashanti Jefferson Staff Writer

Milk, rice, dry beans, eggs, cheese and bread.

Suppose one evening you need to cook dinner for your family and these are the only foods in your home. In this hypothetical situation, you don’t have any extra cash, so dashing out to the grocery store is not an option.

Elaine Mir says that for many parents on limited incomes - including more than 6,000 Spokanearea families who live below the poverty line - this situation is a real-life dilemma.

“The less money you have, the smarter you have to be,” she says. “We know that when children are exposed to a variety of healthy foods while they’re young, those habits stick with them.”

From her office near the Spokane County Fairgrounds, Mir coordinates the Extension Family and Nutrition Education Program (EFNEP). The program is funded by the U.S. Department of Agriculture and Washington State University.

Mir oversees six community outreach workers who recruit families on limited incomes to participate in free nutrition and parenting classes.

Mir also helps prepare the curriculum for the classes.

The purpose of EFNEP, Mir says, is to help parents and children acquire the knowledge, skills and behaviors necessary to fight hunger and create nutritionally sound diets.

“The program has operated in Spokane for 27 years,” Mir says. “We collaborate with Head Start, WIC, food banks, community centers and family shelters.”

Brenda Cook is one of the EFNEP community outreach workers charged with recruiting students from different parts of the city. Cook lives and works in northwest Spokane.

During her class at the Spokane Food Bank last week, Cook used index cards with pictures of different foods on them to present the milk, rice, and dry beans challenge to her students.

“We talk about nutrients and the vitamins in the foods we’re eating,” Cook says.

“My goal is to teach people what to do with what they have.”

If your family could benefit from an EFNEP nutrition and life skills class, or if you’d like to be an EFNEP volunteer, call 533-2048.

, DataTimes MEMO: If you have a community Discovery that deserves recognition, call the Spokane County Health Improvement Partnership (HIP) at 482-2557, or Elana Ashanti Jefferson at 459-5419.

If you have a community Discovery that deserves recognition, call the Spokane County Health Improvement Partnership (HIP) at 482-2557, or Elana Ashanti Jefferson at 459-5419.

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