Adel, Iowa – A Good Nutrition on a Budget class was held on January 17th at the St. Olivet Lutheran Church in Perry, IA. This class was in partnership with the Perry Food Pantry, which provides food security assistance to residents of Perry. This class was attended by eight participants as well as two of the class's organizers [Lois Hoger (Pantry Director) and Rosa Gonzalez (Human Sciences Extension Field Specialist), pictured]. Childcare and Spanish interpretation services were offered; however, these services were not utilized during this class. Participants also had the choice of a Venison Bean Soup, Vegetable Bean Soup, and refreshments to enjoy during the presentation.
Good Nutrition on a Budget is a cost-free class that teaches strategies for menu planning, smart shopping, using USDA's MyPlate as a guideline for healthy eating, increasing physical activity, and incorporating delicious, nutritious recipes into their diet. The participants were engaged, asked questions, expressed appreciation, and communicated interest in future programming. Beyond the Good Nutrition on a Budget presentation, several of the class participants were interested in a cooking demonstration so I provided a vegetable cutting demonstration, gave cooking tips, and talked through the basics of foodsafe practices. Participants also asked for meal-planning tips in single-person households, so at the end of the class we played a 15-minute Mini-Lesson of "Cooking For One Or Two" from our Stay Independent course.
Iowa State University Extension and Outreach of Dallas County purchased and donated forty Healthy and Homemade Cookbooks to the Perry Food Pantry: twenty of them in English, and twenty in Spanish. Participants of this class received a no-cost cookbook to take home, with the remaining cookbooks being made available for clients at the Perry Food Pantry. Additionally, participants took home a no-cost bimetallic stemmed thermometer to aid their home food safety, courtesy of ISU Department of Human Sciences.
Healthy and Homemade Cookbooks are available on the Extension Store in English, Spanish, as a monthly calendar, and as a cookbook for children. Click on the link below to learn more.
For more information or questions about the program contact Tom Keinert at tkeinert@iastate.edu or 515-721-7824.