January 3, 2010
The Nutrition Education Menu
Click here to download Nutrition Education Menu Materials!
The objectives of our Nutrition Education Program were to:
- Increase the number of low-risk nutrition education contacts our agency provides.
- Increase WIC participant involvement in the nutrition education they receive, integrating VENA principles.
- Better prepare WIC Clerks to provide low-risk nutrition education.
- Develop a simple tool that would assist meeting the previous goals
The process consisted of:
- Developing a nutrition education menu of 7-10 nutrition topics after offering a needs assessment to participants.
- Creating menus based on nutrition topics for women, infants or children in English and Spanish. Pictures and words on the menu identify the topics.
- At WIC voucher pick-up appointments the administration staff present the nutrition Education Menu to participants and the participant chooses which topic interests them. The staff then engages participants in a short conversation about the topic using nutrition education materials.
- Nutritionists train the clerks about menu topics through learning the mini lessons and role-playing. Clerks set monthly nutrition education contact goals and are informed about their progress
- After six months participants were surveyed to evaluate the impact and effectiveness of the menu
The results of our program show:
- Nutrition Education contacts have increased since initiation of the Nutrition Education Menu.
- Before implementation an average of 41 nutrition education contacts per month were provided.
- Three months after initiation an average of 213 nutrition education contacts per month were provided.
- Six months after initiation an average of 223 nutrition education contacts per month were provided
- Participants now have the opportunity to choose the nutrition education they receive.
- 90% of participants surveyed indicated that they learned at least one new idea from the education they received.
- 50% of participants surveyed indicated they made a nutrition-related change as a result of the education they received.
Based on these results we can conclude:
- The Nutrition Education Menu helped increase nutrition education contacts we provide to our 1450 participants.
- Using the menu assists in initiating nutrition-related conversations between staff and participants.
- Staff & participants feel a greater sense of ownership & involvement in their WIC experience.
- The process of choosing a topic from the menu does not increase the time required for a pick-up appointment and is adaptable to most Local Agencies.
- As Local Agencies across the country adapt the menu idea, more WIC participants will have the option to choose and will be more likely to make appropriate nutrition-related changes.