Research, partnership and evaluation for childhood obesity prevention,
local food systems and food insecurity.

OCTOBER NEWS

 

OCTOBER IS FARM TO SCHOOL MONTH
October is Farm to School month, a time to celebrate the connections that are happening all over the country between schools and local food. To learn more about this month’s activities, click here.
 



FOOD DAY OMAHA: OCTOBER 20
The Center is pleased to co-host Food Day Omaha with the Omaha Farmers Market for the third year. Join us on Sunday, October 20, from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. at Aksarben Village, 67th and Center streets, for the Aksarben Farmers Market and Food Day Omaha featuring partner organizations offering information, activities and cooking demonstrations representing “Eating Real.”

Food Day, officially celebrated on October 24, is a nationwide celebration and a movement for healthy, affordable and sustainable food.

The event will include cooking, canning and other food preparation demonstrations by Cooking Matters, Girl Scouts, Hy-Vee and others. More than 25 partners will be sharing information on worm composting, sprouting, healthy eating, gardening and more. For a complete listing of activities, watch our website.
 



SCHOOL CHEF CURRICULUM TO BE INTRODUCED
The Gretchen Swanson Center for Nutrition is working with LiveWell Colorado on its LiveWell@School Food Initiative. The Center is helping to develop, pilot and introduce a Chef Instructor Teacher’s Guide this month.

Project Manager Leah Carpenter will be piloting the guide at a culinary workshop to be held on October 14 and 15 in the Mapleton School District. A final version of the guide will be available at a culinary workshop on October 25 and 26 in the Montezuma School District – and at all future workshops.

In addition, Dr. Dan Schober is writing a Chef Consultant Training Manual to be used primarily by new chefs in the program to impart skills used to effectively teach the materials and build relationships.
 
Center staff members will conduct ongoing training and implementation of the materials, which will include technical assistance to LiveWell Colorado in their efforts to train chefs and implement the curriculum. This project will conclude in April 2014.
 



NUTRITION-BASED CANCER PREVENTION
STUDIES COMPLETE

With generous funding provided by the Carl and Caroline Swanson Foundation Inc., the Center was able to support five nutrition-based cancer prevention and control pilot studies within Nebraska and Oklahoma in 2012 and 2013. These studies had a specific focus on Native American populations utilizing multiple approaches ranging from bench to bedside. Final reports for the studies are now available on the Center’s website. Click here to read the reports.
 





FRICKE NAMED PROJECT MANAGER
Hollyanne Fricke, MPH, hired as a research associate in May, has been promoted to project manager at the Center. Fricke will continue to aid on multiple projects for the Center and will take a management role on food insecurity/hunger-related projects.
 



HUNGER STUDY DATA COLLECTION COMPLETE
This summer, Center staff members collected data for the Hunger in America 2014 study developed by Feeding America. (See photo upper right.) Project Manager Leah Carpenter oversaw the project, which surveyed Food Bank for the Heartland’s service area. In this area that includes 77 counties in Nebraska and 16 counties in Western Iowa, 64 agencies were sampled from mid-April through August with a total client count of 3,056 and 467 surveyed. Results from this data collection will be released by Feeding America next year.
 



SCHOBER PRESENTING POSTER AT ABAI CONFERENCE
Dr. Dan Schober from the Center will be making an electronic poster presentation at the Association for Behavior Analysis International’s Second Education Conference, to be held November 8 through 10, in Chicago. Co-authored with Dr. Amy Yaroch, the poster is titled “Using Social Media to Prevent Childhood Obesity through Nutrition Education in Early Care and Education Settings.”
 



The Gretchen Swanson Center for Nutrition aids in survey development and evaluation for national organizations and others. If you are interested in finding out more about these services, please contact Dr. Amy Yaroch, executive director, at ayaroch@centerfornutrition.org.
 

Serving as survey
support tech,
Michelle Woodruff from
the Center prepares
tablets for data
collection at one of
the Food Bank for the
Heartland agencies
involved in the
Hunger in America
2014 study.

Dr. Amy Yaroch,
Executive Director 

Mission

The Gretchen Swanson Center for Nutrition is an independent research institution providing scientific expertise, partnership and resources to improve diet and physical activity behaviors among youth and their families to help grow a healthier next generation.
Copyright © 2013 Gretchen Swanson Center for Nutrition, All rights reserved.
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