Healthy eating: USU program brings good nutrition right into the home

SYRACUSE — Erika Dangel's kitchen is alive with activity.

The Syracuse resident prepares what will become tonight's dinner, along with Darlene House, a nutrition assistant with USU Extension Services, who is teaching Dangel as part of a national program USU offers.

The recipe Dangel and House are working on is Crock Pot Meatloaf. The two spend a few minutes preparing the ground beef, peeling and cutting vegetables and crushing crackers. Two of Dangel's children, Wyatt, 6, and Dillon, 4, come into the kitchen to help peel vegetables.

As Dangel puts the finishing touches on the meatloaf before sticking it in the crock pot, House brings out a flip chart and teaches her a short lesson. Today's lesson is on physical fitness and how important it is for a healthy lifestyle. At the end of the lesson, Dangel receives a sheet with the main pointers from the lesson, and another sheet of recipes to add to her collection of around 250 she has received while participating in the program.

"I like the recipes. They're very simple, easy recipes," she said.

Dangel is part of the Expanded Food and Nutrition Education Program offered through Utah State University Extension Services. The main focus of the free program is to teach families, youths and seniors, especially those of limited means, better nutrition and provide recipes for low-cost, healthful meals.

"If we can teach a young mother how to better feed her children, her child learns to live a healthier lifestyle with nutrition and physical activity, and we've educated two people," said Kay Evans, EFNEP Supervisor for Davis and Weber Counties.

The way the program works is that families who qualify, based on guidelines similar to those for other federal assistance programs, sign up for the program or are referred to participate in it. A nutrition assistant trained in program curriculum comes to the family's home anywhere from twice a month to weekly and presents a lesson, and the family then prepares a low-cost, nutritious meal, discussed during the previous week's lesson. By the end of the hourlong lesson, participants have a meal ready for their family's lunch or dinner and have learned a principle for a healthier lifestyle, Evans said.

Because the program is federally funded, lessons follow USDA guidelines and MyPyramid, the more personalized version of the Food Guide Pyramid.

"MyPyramid is very personalized. There's a direct link relationship between a healthy lifestyle and a person's good health," Evans said. "If people eat well and are physically active, they feel well."