Capital Region Nutrition Education Program (EFNEP & ESNY)

Contact:

Service Area:The Capital Region Nutrition Education Program serves the following counties: Albany, Columbia, Fulton-Montgomery, Greene, Otsego, Rensselaer, Saratoga, Schenectady, Schoharie, Warren, and Washington.

The Capital Region Nutrition Education Program through Cornell Cooperative Extension is committed to promoting positive nutrition practices and fun physical activity, encouraging wise use of personal and environmental resources, securing access to nutritious and safe food, and fostering food secure communities through research- and issue-based programming.

Eat Smart New York!

Eat Smart New York! (ESNY) is a free nutrition education program for food stamp participants or those eligible to receive food stamps. Trained nutrition educators meet with food stamp clients either individually or in groups in their homes or community settings and help them explore nutrition, meal planning, smart food shopping, cooking weight control, physical activity, and much more. To find out if you are eligible for food stamps, go to www.mybenefits.ny.gov. For more information on Eat Smart New York! click on your local Cornell Cooperative Extension link on the home page (or however this should be worded) (or provide the links directly to each county nutrition program here).

Expanded Food and Nutrition Education Program

The Expanded Food and Nutrition Education Program (EFNEP) is a free nutrition education program that assists parents and care-givers of children, with limited resources, acquire the knowledge and skills necessary for improving the total family diet and nutritional well-being. Free classes are offered individually or in groups, and focus on selecting high quality foods, basic cooking and food preparation skills, food safety, prenatal nutrition, feeding infants and children, and managing the family food resources. For more information on EFNEP, please click on your local county Cooperative Extension.

Community nutrition education and cooking classes

Eat Well, Eat Local, Eat Together (Eat 3)

Sponsored by Cornell Cooperative Extension and the Farmer’s Market Nutrition Program, Eat 3 is a project that helps you choose, prepare, and enjoy healthy family meals using local produce in New York State. For healthy recipes and tips for using local foods for wholesome, tasty meals your family can enjoy together go to www.eat3.org

Family Mealtimes Matter:

Family Mealtimes Matter is a collaboration between Cornell Cooperative Extension, Eat Smart New York!, and Price Chopper supermarkets, to encourage families to eat more healthy meals together. The project was born, in part, out of Cornell Cooperative Extension’s long standing commitment to fostering strong, active, and healthy families and individuals. Research shows that not only is eating together a key element in helping people achieve their nutritional goals, it just might go a long way in preventing a variety of other physical and social ills because food connects people!

Take the four-week family meals challenge and pledge to increase the number of meals you and your family eat together. Click on the link below for a special booklet. It contains articles written by Cornell Cooperative Extension nutrition and parenting experts to help you make mealtimes better together. Find information on slow cookers, cooking once-eating twice, mealtime conversation starters, healthy eating on the run, being active as a family, kids in the kitchen, money saving strategies, as well as tips on preventing childhood obesity. Use the calendar on page one to track the number of meals you eat together over the next four weeks.