Program Development and Implementation for South Carolina Youth through Expanded Food and Nutrition Education Program (EFNEP)

The Expanded Food Nutrition and Education Program (EFNEP) is a federally-funded program that aims at informing and educating limited-resource children, youth, and families in developing and maintaining a nutritionally sound diet, and a physically active lifestyle. Many of the intervention programs implemented through Youth EFNEP are created to be part of an existing school curriculum or as an after-school program. Currently, few programs exist that allow for easy transferability of these already existing curriculums to a summer camp setting.Therefore, the purpose of our Creative Inquiry was to develop the students\u27 abilities to design and implement a Nutrition Education program for youth audiences in a community setting. Students\u27 responsibilities comprised the analysis of lesson structure for grades K-12, development of lesson materials, implementation of the nutrition education lessons with youth audiences from surrounding community areas, and the application of Youth EFNEP evaluation tools.The 8-lesson curriculum is being pilot-tested during the fall of 2014 and spring of 2015 at Littlejohn Community Center in Clemson. The students have taken a leading role in the implementation of the nutrition education activities at the center, acquired the skills to work with low income audiences and have been actively providing the necessary feedback to improve the quality and content of the curriculum, so that one day it becomes a tool that can be used nationwide in summer camps by Youth EFNEP educators