Food & Nutrition [Volume 14, Number 2]

              April1984 Volume 14 Number 2
In this issue, we take a look
at some of the ways people
are providing nutrition educa­tion
to families, elderly and
disabled persons, and special groups, like
Southeast Asian refugees.
"'~c· :.~
•. ' .r
While the approaches vary from personal­ized
instruction to creative use of television
and printed materials, the goal is the same­to
help those on limited budgets develop
the skills they need to plan, shop for, and
prepare nourish~ng well-balanced meals.
Gray Panthers Reach Out
To the Elderly and Disabled
Tofu and mushrooms stir-fry, fiv~­spice
chicken , and zucchini and
cheese soup-all these sound exotic
and, maybe, a little expensive. But
the San Francisco Gray Panthers
are teaching seniors and disabled
people that they can prepare meals
like these easily and .cheaply.
The Gray Panthers is a national
organization working for better
health care and nutrition, affordable
housing, and accessible transporta­tion
for senior citizens and low­income
people of all ages. "Age and
youth in action" is the ir motto, and
their members include everyone
from teenagers to retirees.
Several times a month members of
San Francisco's Gray Panthers ven­ture
out into senior centers, low­cost
hotels, and housing projects to
provide 1-hour cooking demonstra­tions
featuring several items in the
Panthers' large repertoire of recipes.
"My husband calls me the Julia
Child of the Tenderloin ," laughs
Lynn Fitzwater, describing her
demonstrations that often take place
in San Francisco's Tenderloin , a
skid-row area where many low­income
seniors live. While the
demonstrations are primarily aimed
at seniors, the Gray Panthers
periodically make presentations
before disabled groups as well.
Geared to elderly
on low incomes
The program, called "Cheap and
Nutritious," began when members of
the Gray Panthers realized that many
San Francisco seniors needed a dif­ferent
type of cooking class than
was being offered.
"Too many of the cooking classes
in the Bay Area were aimed at the
affluent," says Miriam Blaustein, one
of the co-directors of the program.
"We want to show seniors that good
food can be both cheap and fun .
The idea was to present a program
on hotplate cooking since so many
seniors live in meager housing that
doesn't have adequate cooking
facilities."
Most of the meals that are pre­pared
in the demonstrations are very
simple and require just one pot or
pan for preparation. The five-spice
2
chicken, for instance, is a tasty dish
based on Vietnamese cooking that is
easily made in one pan. Several of
the other dishes, such as curried
fish salad or the popular Middle
Eastern dish, tabbouleh, do not even
require a stove.
"Certain recipes seem to work
better than others," says Blaustein.
"Omelettes are especially good.
They are very easy to prepare, few
of the ingredients need refrigeration,
and there are few leftovers. Our
soup recipes are very successful
also, especially if the seniors have a
place to store the leftovers."
Focus is on
special needs
The purpose of "Cheap and Nutri­tious"
is much more than teaching
seniors how to prepare one-pan
dinners. The Panther cooks try to
tailor each demonstration to the
special nutrition needs and problems
of older people.
"We emphasize recipes that are
low in salt, fat, and sugar-especally
low in salt," explains Fitzwater, who
is the other co-director of the
"Cheap and Nutritious" project.
"That's not to say we don't use any
salt, but we try to make the seniors
aware of how much salt is already in
their foods. We have to do this
because so many seniors are on
sodium-restricted diets."
Throughout their presentations,
the Panther cooks pepper their dia­logue
with information on which pre­pared
foods contain the most salt
and how seniors can reduce the
amount of salt they eat. For instance,
the Panthers suggest that when they
feel like salting their food, they
reach instead for an allspice mixture.
The Panthers hand out a recipe for
this mixture at their demonstrations.
The Panthers also emphasize
using fresh food whenever possible.
"We take the point of view that fresh
is always better," says Blaustein.
"With fresh foods, you have control
of your meal and how much salt is
added."
"We often tell the audience never
to buy anything with ingredients
they cannot pronounce," adds Lynn
Fitzwater. "That type of joke makes
a point but it also helps loosen up
the audience and makes them more
receptive to our presentation."
The demonstrations themselves
have a decidedly non-high-tech
look. "We don't come in with shiny
new equipment," says Blaustein.
"We use stuff everyone has. A black
cast-iron skillet, everyone recog­nizes
that. Why, my eggbeater is
older than I am."
Whi le the Panthers do not directly
discuss food assistance programs
like food stamps, they do gear thei r
recipe planning toward those on
very tight budgets. They estimate
most of the meals they demonstrate
can be prepared for an average
price of 50 to 75 cents per serving.
Social isolation
is a big concern
One of the cornerstones of the
Panthers' cooking demonstrations is
the social aspect of cooking and
eating for seniors. Social isolation is
a serious problem for low-income
elderly. The Gray Panthers see their
"Cheap and Nutritious" project as a
way of combatting that isolation.
"We always tell our audiences at
the demonstrations, 'Never eat
alone,' "says Blaustein. "We tell
them to call their neighbors across
the hall-cook together, eat to­gether.
It can be very stressful to eat
alone. The conviviality of eating with
people, the interchange with
neighbors is so important."
The "Cheap and Nutritious" proj­ect
has been in operation for 3 years
and has a staff of five. In addition to
coordinators Blaustein and Fitz­water,
the staff includes Florence
Phillips, Lillian Kaskaddon, and Ann
MacMillan. None are professional
nutritionists, but are what they call
"common sense cooks."
Each demonstration features three
people. Two act as the cooks, and
the third is an assistant. That
assistant becomes especially impor­tant
toward the end of the demon­stration
when a sample of the food
is given to every member of the
audience. While the sample is
usually small , it gives the seniors an
idea of how each dish should taste.
Project helped
by private funds
For almost the entire 3 years the
project has been in operation, it has
been funded by the McKesson Foun­dation,
formerly the Foremost­McKesson
Corporation. The funding
enables the Gray Panthers to buy
Food and Nutrition
supplies and print the recipes that
are handed out to the audience.
According to Dena Goldberg,
an official of the McKesson Foun­dation,
the idea of offering support
to the Gray Panthers' cooking proj­ect
grew out of a survey of
McKesson employees.
"In 1979, Foremost-McKesson
surveyed its employees to see what
type of groups they wanted the
Foundation to fund ," she says.
"Employees showed a great interest
in helping senior citizens. This sur­vey
had an impact on where the
Foundation set its funding
priorities."
Foundation representat ives visited
several of the demonstrations before
authorizing funding, and they were
impressed. "The program fit our
needs very well since it cut across
several of our priority lines," says
Goldberg. " It served sen iors and it
dealt with nutrition issues." (At that
time, Foremost-McKesson was
involved in several aspects of food
processing.)
"We were real impressed with the
program," she adds. "The seniors
really liked it, and it was more than a
class on how to cook. It also had a
socializing function-it was a place
for people to meet."
Five-s .
Pice Chicken
3- to 3 Y,-Jb. fr .
2 rnediurn _Ying chick
3 c/o onions en
y, tea~~s garlic, cr~~~0PPed
1 teas oon fresh i ed
Poon Five Spg· nger, grated
S . Ices •
_kin Chicke
Pieces I n, cut into
3 tabJespoo
3 tables ns soy sau
2 tabJ Poons Saff! ce
2 tabJ espoons lernoo~e': Oil
y, te espoons Wat n JUice
asp00n er
sugar
To rnake o
Currently, the Gray Panthers are
planning no major changes in the
program. They do have a cookbook
in the works, however, and hope to
have it off the press later this year.
For more information on the "Cheap
and Nutritious" project, contact
Miriam Blaustein or Lynn Fitzwater.
Their address is:
Gray Panthers of San Francisco
50 Fell Street
San Francisco, California 94102
article and photos by Phil Canuto
Miriam Blaustein (below),
one of the co-directors of
the "Cheap and Nutritious"
project, prepares an
omelette for an interested
audience. At the end of the
demonstration, every
member of the audience
gets a small sample to
taste.
.,.. .
• · ,
Onion /n ~i~ heavy iron ~e~ving
Aernove fr until golden kll/et, saute
In rernal·n . orn Skillet 8 In color
1ng · · row ·
and crushed 01/, ~hen add th Chicken
M· gar11c. e onion
star an · y ur own F ·
b ISe ( b IVe S ·
roken u a out two Plces, us
seed), l-2 fe or 1 teaspo~hoJe_ ones e
IX lernon . . l-2 teaspoo asf?oon clov n anise
sauce . JUice, Wat
· gmge er, su
over Chicken r, and Five S rJar, soy
o~er low fla . Cover tightfiCes. Pour
With brow '"'!e for 4S rn . Y. Slrnrner
n rtce tnutes S · · erve
April1984
fennel n Clnnarn es,
• and y,; on 1 t
PePPer. 4 teaspoo~ bJ easpoon
ack
Sorne s . grocery
Pice cornb · stores rn
You can I nations s . ~y carry
experiment I':'"JIIar to th.
With You IS or
rown.
3
Special Help For Southeast Asian Refugees
For Southeast Asian • .refugees
accustomed to daily food shopping
at open-air farmers' markets, sud­denly
being confronted with the
intricacies of the modern super­market
can be bewildering and fright­ening.
They are faced not only with
a totally_ new system of shopping,
but also with many unfamiliar foods,
and even familiar foods may be
packaged in strange new ways.
Working out of a health center in
San Francisco's Chinatown, nutri­tionist
Catherine Wong helps these
"newcomers," as she calls them,
solve the mysteries of the American
supermarket. This, she says, is an
essential part of nutrition education
for this special group.
"In addition to teaching these
people the basics of what foods they
need to maintain good health," she
says, "I teach them the mechanics of
how to obtain those foods in an en­vironment
totally foreign to them."
Interest began
as a student
Wong, who says she "lives and
breathes nutrition," has been inter­ested
in the health field all her life.
As a child she was inspired by the
story of Florence Nightingale and
wanted to become a nurse. She
came to the United States from
Hong Kong in 1969 and began work­ing
closely with the health commun­ity
during high school and college.
As a nurse's aide, she became
interested in what patients were fed,
and why. She worked at Chinatown
Health Center Number 4 as a vol­unteer
at fairs and various other
activities.
"I felt I could make a contri­bution,"
she says, "and was always
looking for opportunities to put my
2 -cents -worth in." Wong became
interested in the nutritional status of
the Chinese people, especially
mothers and their infants.
After completing degrees in
nutrition, dietetics, and public
health, Wong returned to the San
Francisco Bay area and convinced
Health Center Number 4 to hire her
for a couple of months to get a
nutrition education component
started at the clinic.
"I put the nutrition education
program together here," she says,
4
"and the center believed in it and
invited me to stay."
Tailors teaching
to clients' needs
In her work with Southeast Asian
refugees, Wong began by taking
small groups on shopping trips. She
showed them how to use a shopping
cart, get through a checkout stand,
differentiate between similarly
packaged food and nonfood items,
and how to tell what is in one of
those cleverly designed packages so
familiar to the American shopper but
a mystery to one who has little or no
grasp of the language.
"One of the things we teach is not
to open the product packages to
check the contents," Wong says.
The shopping trips were a start,
but Wong soon found that she could
not meet the needs of all her clients.
She began looking for a film or slide
series that might substitute for the
store visits and reach larger groups.
"The few that I could find were
too long and didn't cover the really
basic points that were needed.
Then, there was the language prob­lem,"
Wong says.
She decided to develop a special
slide-tape series that would take the
viewer on a shopping trip with a
family. She did this with the help of
several colleagues and funding from
the University of California and San
Francisco General Hospital. The
series is available in six Southeast
Asian languages as well as English.
"The real key to effective nutrition
education is for the instructor to be
willing to learn," says Wong. "I know
the Chinese culture, which has had
great influence throughout Indo­China.
Still, there are many dif-
Food and Nutrition
ferences between groups and within
groups. I learn every day from
clients, fellow health workers, and
translators.
"Just as important," Wong says,
"is letting each person know that I'm
interested in them. If I don't, it's very
likely that all my suggestions and
recommendations will be ignored.
"I do this by first carefully
assessing each client; learning
about their culture; assessing their
educational levels; reviewing the re­sources
available to them; and
observing how they personally view
April1984
their problem. Then I gain the con­fidence
of the client by acknowledg­ing
their problems and pointing out
solutions they can live with. This
may take all of the first and second
visits, especially if we communicate
through an interpreter."
Cultural preferences
make a difference
After learning something about
her clients, Wong is careful to tailor
her nutrition education and coun-seling
to their specific needs. To do
this, she always considers clients as
individuals, rather than as part of a
homogeneous group.
An example of tailoring nutrition
education to people's backgrounds
is Wong's suggested use of cheese.
Cheese is not a part of the tradi­tional
Asian diet, yet many families
receive USDA-donated cheese
through the surplus food distri­bution
program.
Rather than suggesting that it be
used in American-type dishes, Wong
suggests that it be used for snacks
for the children . Another use suited
to the habits of Vietnamese new­comers
is as an ingredient in pizza
bread (cheese melted on French
bread). French bread is popular with
the Vietnamese due to past French
..
Catherine Wong works with clients individually as
well as in group settings, often using food demon­strations
to encourage them to prepare their fa­vorite
foods in healthier ways. For newcomers to
this country who cannot read, she uses food
models, food packages, and pictures to get
across important points.
5
influence in Vietnam .
When choosing nutrition educa­tion
tools, she considers the reading
level and the cultural orientation of
the materials. "Some newcomers
may not read in any languages," she
says, " however, there are useful
materials that do not require reading
skills. Things such as fo.l'!ld
packages, pictures of real foods, or
food models."
She pays particular attention to
whether the item is culturally sensi­tive.
"A direct translation of a
pamphlet originally designed for
one group may omit important
points or make unrealistic recom­mendations
for another. Time taken
to adapt the material will pay off in
increased effectiveness," Wong
says. "When you can't find materials
that are suitable, develop your own."
Wong was instrumental in devel­oping
a slide-tape show on dietary
management of hypertension .
"Many traditional Chinese foods
may contribute to hypertension and
cardiovascular diseases," she
explains. "A culturally sensitive
program for the Chinese-American
population wasn't available, so we
obtained a grant to develop one."
The program, developed with a
grant from the California State
Hypertension Control Project, is
available in both English and
Cantonese.
Suggests using
variety of tools
"Don't overlook other types of
nutrition education tools," encour­ages
Wong. One of her most
successful was a Healthy Baby Con­test
patterned after those in Hong
Kong sponsored by commercial
firms.
The one sponsored by Health
Center Number 4 was designed to
provide mothers with an incentive to
bring their children to well-baby
clinics, insure that the children re­ceived
vaccinations, and encourage
mothers to attend a series of classes
in infant care.
"It was lots of work, but definitely
worth it in terms of the community
involvement and client interest it
generated," says Wong.
Wong builds on the positive as­pects
of her clients' traditional
eating habits. "As in most cultures,"
she says, "food plays a very impor­tant
part in social occasions and
holiday celebrations for Asians."
She has prepared suggestions and
6
recipes for traditional Chinese New
Year holiday foods that are adapted
to provide lower content of sodium
and fat. "This way," she explains,
" clients can enjoy their holiday
favorites while still following proper
dietary habits."
Wong believes nutrition educators
must set realistic goals for them­selves
and their clients. "Even small
changes, such as using less sugar,
can mean a long-term improvement
process," she points out.
Asking clients to stop eating their
favorite "treat" food often will be un­successful.
Asking clients to limit
the number of times the food is
eaten is much more acceptable and
usually gets better results. Clients
who learn that they can successfully
limit the number of times they eat
something are more likely to attempt
other dietary changes.
Wong takes care to avoid over­loading
her clients with information.
"Too many times, clients are pre­sented
with more concepts than
they can understand and absorb at
one time. I've found that it is much
more successful to limit the infor­mation
to one or two important
points at one time, especially when
counseling individuals."
In addition to counseling clients at
Health Center Number 4, Wong
works with the prenatal program,
with clients with chronic diseases,
with senior citizens, and with the
preventive health program. In order
to reach a larger audience, especially
people who may not have access to
nutrition advice, Wong has appeared
on local Chinese-language tele­vision
and has a monthly talk show
on a Chinese-language radio station.
For people new to this country
and to urban life, nutrition education
may seem far down on the list of
things they learn. "Not so," says
Wong. "Gaining access to the food
supply by learning how to shop is a
necessary skill. And making the
right food choices for good health
is an essential part of that process.
There's no reason why the two can't
be taught together."
For more information, contact:
Catherine Wong, Nutritionist
Health Center No. 4
San Francisco Department of Public
Health
1490 Mason Street
San Francisco, California 94133
article by Mavis Buchholz
photos by Tina Serrano
EFNEP:
Finding
Ways to
Reach People
The Expanded Food and Nutrition
Education Program (EFNEP). admin­istered
by USDA's Extension Service
through state Cooperative Extension
Services, has been providing nutri­tion
education to low-income home­makers
since 1968. The program
uses paraprofessional nutrition
aides who provide information to
participants on nutrition and food
shopping, preparation, storage, and
sanitation.
In a pilot test completed in 1981,
Georgia's Cooperative Extension
Service tested a variety of ways to
enhance EFNEP services to low­income
families, particularly food
stamp families. The 1-year project
was developed jointly by the state's
EFNEP staff and the Extension Com­munication
Department, using a
$420,000 grant from USDA. It in­volved
creative use of mass media,
films, and printed materials, coupled
with a variety of new educational
methods.
Reaching more
families a goal
The first part of the project
focused on testing ways to increase
participation in EFNEP. Project
planners developed five different
recruitment tools-radio and tele­vision
public service announce­ments,
direct mail materials, posters,
and short films.
According to Ann Peisher, state
EFNEP coordinator, the radio and
television announcements were
especially effective. "We found radio
and television increased the credi­bility
of the program and that had a
positive impact on enrollment,"
she says.
"A lot of the people who enroll in
EFNEP come from referrals from
other professional agencies, and the
extent to which a professional or
caseworker refers clients to the
program depends on his or her own
image of it.
Food and Nutrition
"Caseworkers are very much
affected by the public image of the
program-not necessarily by the
effectiveness of it. The more they
saw or heard about the program on
television or radio, the more credible
it seemed to them."
For direct mailing, project coordi­nators
designed and printed brightly
colored flyers. The flyers had a short
nutrition message and attractive
graphics on one side, and on the
reverse, a toll-free number to call
the Extension Service for nutrition
information. These were sent to
food stamp participants in the
envelopes containing their authori­zation-
to-participate (ATP) cards.
Some valuable
lessons learned
Several of the mailers' messages
("Give Your Baby a Good Start in
Life," "Does Your Child Measure
Up?") appealed to young home­makers
with children-a key group
EFNEP seeks to attract.
One, however, appealed to a wide
range of potential participants and
had some unexpected results. The
EFNEP aide Alicia Christantho
teaches a Spanish-speaking fam­ily
in their home in Doraville,
Georgia. She is using the 20-
lesson structured course devel­oped
and tested during the pilot
project 2 years ago.
front of the card resembled a check
for $450.90 for "good purchasing
power," and the back contained the
standard information about EFNEP.
Unfortunately, says Rob Williams,
the Communication Department's
media consultant for the project, the
check looked a little too realistic.
"Everyone advised me the mailer
was not a good idea, but I decided
to ignore them, thinking no one
would mistake it for a real check,"
he says. "There are county agents
who still don't speak to me. There
are grocery store owners all over
Georgia who would like to get their
hands on me for that."
Williams says he would not use
the same approach again-and
would certainly not recommend it to
others-but it did have the desired
effect of attracting people to EFNEP.
Some county offices had hundreds
of families contact them about
EFNEP. Many of these families
enrolled.
According to Peisher and
Williams, every recruitment tool
tested taught them valuable lessons
about who would react, whether the
reactions were desired ones, and
what results could be effectively
measured.
Several teaching
methods tested
The second aspect of Georgia's
study-improving the effectiveness
of their nutrition education
methods-also involved testing
several techniques. These included:
• Small group instruction with a
program assistant and printed
materials.
• Small group instruction with a
program assistant and films.
• Television at home with study
workbooks.
• A mobile education exhibit.
• Traditional one-to-one instruc­tion
(totally individualized) .
• Nontraditional one-to-one
instruction (based on a structured
curriculum) .
"We started EFNEP originally with
some sound premises-that the
individuals we wanted to reach were
very isolated culturally, geograph­ically,
and socially, and that the
one-to-one approach was the best
method of teaching them," says
Peisher. "But the clientele has
changed through the years. The
In Scottsdale, Georgia, EFNEP aide Juanita
White visits a mother of seven interested in learn­ing
more about planning meals for her family.
food stamp recipient of today no
longer fits the profile of a 1970
recipient."
Food stamp recipients today, she
explains, are generally less isolated,
more sophisticated, and better edu­cated.
As a result, they are also
more discriminating in their accept­ance
of nutrition education.
"Now we must persuade recipients
they can benefit from nutrition
education and entice them with edu­cation
programs and materials that
are creative and attractive," she
says.
Creativity in content and pres­entation
characterized all the
approaches tested, but by far the
at-home television series won the
distinction of being the most
innovative.
Project coordinators conceived of
the television series as a way to
reach a critical audience-low­income
women between the ages of
17 and 25. Other approaches did not
reach these women, who were most
likely to have children or be preg-a
nant and who needed information
about food and nutrition for them­selves
and their families.
Williams surveyed this target
audience to determine how and
when they used the media. He dis­covered
their highest media usage
occurred during television's after­noon
soap opera block.
From this finding evolved the
concept of a food and nutrition soap
opera. Williams and his staff
watched soap operas.for weeks,
identifying common themes, values,
and techniques, before developing
an 8-part series for EFNEP with the
aid of a freelance scriptwriter.
Series placed on
commercial t.v.
They placed the series, titled "The
Pitts," with commercial television
stations in every market in Georgia.
It was aired by those stations
immediately following regularly
scheduled soap operas. "The Pitts"
was not advertised on those stations
and, according to Williams, no
attempt was made to place the
series on educational television
stations.
"It's almost impossible to get
people to change what what they
perceive as an entertaining station
or program to one that is strictly
educational," he says. "Our idea was
to see if we could use a time, chan­nel,
and format that was believed to
be totally entertaining and sl ip
education into it."
"The Pitts" definitely entertains.
The series is a situation comedy
about tenants in the Pitts apart­ments.
The trials and tribulations of
the tenants provide opportunities for
the characters to offer advice to
each other about food and nutrition
issues.
Instead of commercials, "The
Pitts" contains short segments in
which an Extension specialist ap­pears
and reinforces the educational
concepts slipped into the characters'
dialogues. She gives a toll-free
number for viewers to call to order a
"TV Guide to Good Nutrition" work­book.
The workbook contains activi­ties,
accompanying each program,
for viewers to complete at home and
mail in to the EFNEP office.
Although the series was inno­vative
and entertaining, its total
impact was difficult to evaluate.
However, followup surveys showed
that participants who completed the
mail-in exercises did increase their
nutrition knowledge.
Tests suggest
new emphasis
Findings from the tests of the
other education methods showed
that one-to-one instruction was still
the most effective. But, says Peisher,
one-to-one instruction based on a
structured curriculum outpaced the
traditional one-to-one method.
Group instruction proved effective
in increasing food and nutrition
knowledge for individuals willing to
attend the sessions. One drawback,
however, was that aides had to
spend considerable t ime organizing
these sessions and working to
maintain participation in them. This
offset some of the anticipated
savings of time and effort.
Since completion of its EFNEP
pilot project, the Georgia Coopera­t
ive Extension Service has restruc­tured
its approach to nutrition edu­cation
for low-income households.
One-to-one instruction has been
retained as the primary teaching
method, but aides now teach ac­cording
to a 20-lesson structured
course.
"We've found ways to make one­to-
one more effective," says Peisher.
"For example, I think program aides
teach better because they have a
guide and lessons to follow."
How is EFNEP currently operating
COUNty
EXTENSION
OFFICE
COOPERATIVE EXTENSIDN SERVICE
THE UNIVERSITY OF GEDRiilR
Of RCRJCUL TURE
Twenty-five of Georgia's 159 counties have
EFNEP programs. County EFNEP coordinators
work closely with the state Extension staff, who
provide training, materials, consultation, and other
support.
Food and Nutrition
at the local level in Georgia, and is it
producing results?
Anita Reed, EFNEP coordinator
for DeKalb County, says she sees
definite progress. The diets of
EFNEP participants are improving,
and their test scores on knowledge
of food and nutrition are increasing.
In addition, some homemakers, in­spired
by the skills they have
learned in EFNEP, have sought and
obtained jobs in food service at local
hospitals and restaurants.
Reed's staff recruits EFNEP
enrollees at places where low­income
people congregate-food
stamp offices, WIC clinics, and com­munity
centers in particular. To
build interest in the program, her
aides conduct food demonstrations
in these locations or show the short
films developed during the pilot
project. They have also taught at
sites where USDA-donated foods
were distributed.
Families need
basic skills
In general, Reed identifies money
management-how to budget food
stamps and cash and how to select
and buy food-as the biggest
nutrition education need of food
stamp families.
"They need to know what to buy
to balance their diets," she explains.
Reed's aides encourage families to
include more vegetables, fruit, and
milk in their diets and to prepare
more casseroles to make the meat
they buy stretch further.
Obesity is another common
problem of low-income homemakers.
"These women may not want nutri­tion
education," says Reed, "but
they are interested in weight
control."
She turns this to her advantage,
enrolling the women in "Weight Off
Wisely," a course taught for 6 weeks
in the home and then later in group
sessions. Under the guise of weight
control, EFNEP aides can teach
them about food and fitness.
Anita Reed, EFNEP coordinator
for DeKalb County, is in charge of
one of the largest EFNEP pro­grams
in the state. She trains and
supervises eight EFNEP aides,
who work with homemakers
throughout the county. Here, she
puts the finishing touches on a
chart for a training meeting.
April1984
During 1983, Georgia's EFNEP
aides reached 8,000 low-income
homemakers with their nutrition
education lessons. In 1984, they
hope to reach even more as they
continue implementing findings of
the pilot project.
Knowledge can
make a difference
According to Ann Peisher, one of
the bonuses of the project was that
it tested the effectiveness of
Georgia's EFNEP program with a
control group for the first time.
In districts where the pilot project
was tested, interviewers contacted
food stamp recipients in counties
that did not have EFNEP programs.
Interviewers asked these participants
a series of questions about food
recall and behavior at 2-month
intervals during an 8-month period.
EFNEP participants in pilot project
counties were tested at the same
time using the same method.
When the comparison was
completed, says Peisher, "we had
statistically significant findings that
EFNEP was effective when
compared to the control group. It
was effective in changing food
consumption patterns and in
changing nutrition knowledge. And
knowledge, of course, is the pre­requisite
to all other changed
behavior."
For more information on the
Georgia EFNEP project or the
materials produced for it, contact:
Ann Peisher, EFNEP Coordinator
Cooperative Extension Service
University of Georgia
College of Agriculture
Athens, Georgia 30602
Telephone: 404-542-3773
article by Brenda Schuler
photos by Larry Rana
How Much
Can Local
Food Stamp
Offices Do?
Over the years, the Food and
Nutrition Service has been con­cerned
with informing food stamp
participants about good nutrition so
they can purchase and prepare nutri­tious
meals for their families within
the constraints of a food stamp
budget.
The goal of the Food Stamp Pro­gram
since its inception has been to
allow low-income households to
obtain a more nutritious diet. The
question has always been, "What is
the best way to do this?"
To help answer this question and
plan future information activities,
Bonnie Polk of FNS' public informa­tion
office got several food stamp
eligibility workers and supervisors
from the Washington, D.C., and Balti­more
areas together with several
FNS staffers to exchange ideas.
What the nine who came said might
be useful to others involved in
planning educational activities.
10
How much can
offices do?
"I see providing nutrition informa­tion
as an extension of the food
stamp certification officer's respon­sibility,"
said Samuel Robinson, a
food stamp certification supervisor
for the Washington, D.C., Depart­ment
of Human Services.
Countered Donna Taylor, food
stamp certification supervisor in
Prince William County, Virginia, "I
am unwilling as a food stamp
supervisor to go back to my case­workers
and tell them to spend
10 minutes more on nutrition when
what I really want is for the case to
be perfect when it's finished. They
are not trained in nutrition and
wouldn't feel comfortable doing a
lesson on it. Their job is to know
food stamp policy."
"The workers themselves are not
at all negative about sharing nutri­tion
ideas," said Jane Echenhofer,
food stamp eligibility supervisor in
Alexandria, Virginia. "They want to
do something positive. They would
be willing to give out information
like an idea sheet on nutritious
breakfasts or lunches. That takes
10 seconds. They have 10 seconds,
but not 10 minutes. That's what we
can do."
Single-concept
flyers suggested
They all agreed that single­concept
one-page flyers that could
be stuffed into envelopes and mailed
might be an excellent way to get
nutrition information to participants.
This would be more effective, they
felt, than giving clients material to
read in food stamp offices.
" In the office the atmosphere is
too tense for people to read infor­mation
on nutrition," said Echen­hofer.
"They are concerned mostly
about how many stamps they are
getting. They are dealing with so
much that they are not really
hearing. It would be better if they
could have a pamphlet at home and
read it."
John Huppert, an eligibility
training specialist in Fairfax County,
agreed. "Clients are bombarded with
pamphlets right at the beginning,"
he said . "We have a little form letter
we send out with the authorization­to-
participate (A TP) card that tells
them what foods they can and can't
buy. It has a few paragraphs on
nutrition in it. I think there's a
greater chance of them reading that
just because it doesn't come with
the whole packet the first day."
Helping participants stretch their
food dollars was what the group felt
should be the objective. One or two
recipes or shopping tips would be
more effective than a large booklet.
Booklets, they felt, have too much
information.
Said Robinson, "Clients are fright­ened
by vast amounts of material
they'll have to read ." The group
agreed that there should be separate
sheets with ideas for nutritious
breakfasts, lunches, and dinners.
The theme of simplicity and prac­ticality
came up again and again.
"Target the materials to the con­cerns
of food stamp participants,"
said Echenhofer. "Recipes have to
catch their eye and give practical
information on the simplest,
cheapest ways to buy and prepare
nutritious foods. They have to think
they can actually do it."
Audio-visuals
can be helpful
Using audio-visuals was another
approach to disseminating nutrition
information that the group thought
had potential.
Said Donna Taylor, "I'm willing to
incorporate slides on nutrition into
the slide show I am developing for
participants to watch before they
come in for their interview."
Taylor is in the process of creating
a slide show for food stamp partici­pants
to view while they are having
their group interview, which
precedes individual interviews.
The 30- to 45-minute slide presenta­tion
will tell them about their rights
and responsibilities as participants
and will give them practical infor­mation
on where to shop with food
stamps and what they can buy with
them.
"This approach gives participants
necessary information and at the
same time frees up some of the eligi­bility
worker's time," said Taylor.
"The worker can start the slide
Food and Nutrition
show, leave the room, and then
come back and answer any
questions."
The use of videotapes can also be
effective in this way, according to
Marjorie Nesbitt, an income main­tenance
specialist in Baltimore City.
"This approach doesn't take away
from the worker's time," she said.
"Maybe when walk-in cl ients see a
videotape playing a number of times
while they are waiting for 30 to 45
minutes, they might get the nutrition
message one of those times."
"I think if there were video pre­sentations
available," said Echen­hofer,
"I could go back to our
director and say, 'We have a video­tape
and we need a video machine
to play it.' We might get it. It wouldn't
be a bad idea because it would
focus some of the energy in the
waiting room."
Do you have
ideas to share?
Certification offices in West
Virginia have already been edu­cating
food stamp participants with
audiotapes. For the past 7 months,
Bob Bell, assistant director of
training for the West Virginia State
Department of Human Services, has
been sending out cassette tapes to
the state's 27 area offices.
Interspersed with music are
"informercials," which are announce­ments
about various aspects of the
Food Stamp Program that partici­pants
should know. "People are
used to hearing music everywhere
they go," says Bell. "We feel that this
is a good, inexpensive way to get
their attention and educate them."
If your office is educating food
stamp participants in these or any
other ways, we'd like to hear about
it. We' ll be keeping a file of ideas
from around the country and may be
including them in a future issue of
Food and Nutrition. Send them to:
Bonnie W. Polk
Office of Public Information
Food and Nutrition Service
U.S. Department of Agriculture
article by Bonnie W. Polk
April1984
"What's the best wa to,_sta(t off
the day? Give veryone in your
family a good breakfast, in luding
yourself, mom. It IS:an be cereal nd
milk, ju ice, and a sc~mbled egg, or
a cheese sandwicl;l a d a cup o
tomato soup. Whatever your
drw tlers, serve a reakfasHoda
and evefY. day. Send you fa By off
with a good start on a great day!"
That's~ message from Bob Bell
on · weekJy radio program, "Wake
Up .. . Country Style." W at's unique
about this 15-minute taped show is
that it:b".as been proCluced as a
service to tow-income families at
very I itt e cost for almest 13 years.
Bell an assistant divjsinn qirector
at t e Department otHuman S--ervices
in Charlesto , Wesi Virgini , e ted
the sho and as been wr:itirrg, an­nouncing,
recoraipg, editin taP.ing,
and distributing it ever s1nce e
does all of th"s in I s than Clay. .,
Information and
low-cost rec·pes
"The purpose of the pmg
says Bell, "is to give nutrition in­formation
to low-income.families
and people on fixed incomes, par­ticularly
older people. We tell peopl
how to spend their money wisely
and how they can get the most nutri­tion
for their food dollars.
"The Extension Service helps by
giving us food information. My wife
volunteers her time .each week to do
the voice for a segment on low-cost,
nutritious recipes called the
'Country Kitchen.' We provide
copies of these recipes to anyone in
the audience who writes in for them.
I'm going to be developing cheese
and butter recipes soon to help
people who use these donated
foods."
Every program also has a section
on food stamps, particularly
eligibility information and tips on
how to shop wisely with stamps.
"There's nothing wrong with
snacks," says Bell in one of his seg­ments,
"but try to keep everything in
perspective. Use your food stamps
wisely and buy good food for you
and your family."
The program is not all conversa­tion
either. In fact, what makes it
very popular with the 10 country
stations who have carried it since its
Costs no more
than $45 a week
The program is not exper.:~sive to
produce. "It's not a line "te_JJl," says
Bell. "It costs n0 more han $45 a
week in tirpe, postage, a tape
costs. And the staHo s send the
tapes back so that w ean use them
again." "
Over the years, Bell has eceived
more than 1,00 ·eces of mail
supportililg his p ogram. When e
thought about dtOR ing the show
yeprs ago, there was n,outcry
against it at public hearings.
Leon Ginsberg, ttie Commissioner
of West Virginia's Department of
Human Services and president of
the American Public Welfare Asso­ciation,
is one of those supporters.
"It doesn't cost us anything," says
Ginsberg. 'The portion of time that
Bell uses in producing the program
is matched 50-50 with USDA funds. I
feel the program is worthwhile and
should continue."
Walter Trumble, the owner and
general manager of WPDX in
Clarksburg, West Virginia, agrees.
He has been airing the program
since Bell first produced it.
"I think giving nutrition informa­tion
out to people who need it is
worthwhile and that this is a
responsibility a radio station. should
fulfill," he says. "The quality of Bell's
tapes are fine. Let's give more infor­mation
out!"
For more information on Bob
Bell's programs, write:
Bob Bell
West Virginia Department of Human
Services •·
1900 Washington Street, East
Charleston, West Virginia 25305
Telephone: 304-348-8834
article by Bonnie W. Polk
11
Making Food=---===-----..._.
Activities
Continue In
Many ·Areas • • •
At a regional workshop in Chi­cago
early last summer, Soneeta
Grogan heard USDA's Isabel Wolf
talk about helping families stretch
their food dollars. Flanked by a
grocery cart full of food she had
shopped for the day before, Wolf
told Grogan and other workshop
participants how with careful
buying, a family of four could eat
nutritious well-balanced meals for
$58.00 a week.
12
Wolf, who is administrator of
USDA's Human Nutrition Information
Service, introduced a new booklet
from USDA with menu plans and
recipes to help families who want to
economize make the most of their
food dollars. The booklet and the
workshops-both called "Making
Food Dollars Count"- were part of a
national food buying education proj­ect
launched last year with regional
workshops in seven cities.
The goal of the workshops was to
draw attention to local nutrition
resources and to encourage
nutrition professionals and para­professionals
to use ideas and
information from the workshops in
their own communities. That's
exactly what Soneeta Grogan and
many other nutrition professionals
have done.
Taking the ideas
to the local level
Grogan, who was a member of the
planning committee for the Chicago
workshop, is coordinator of the
Illinois Cooperative Extension
Service's Expanded Food and Nutri­tion
Education Program (EFNEP). In
preparation for the workshop, she
talked with her field staff and asked
them how they could use the menus
and recipes from USDA in their
work with families.
"In Illinois, there are about 10,000
homemakers who participate in
EFNEP," says Grogan. "These
women are learning how to buy food
and prepare economical meals for
their families. We felt the recipes,
menus, and shopping tips in the
Making Food Dollars Count booklet
could be very helpful to them."
According to Grogan, the
materials have been used by Exten­sion
home economists throughout
the state. County EFNEP staff have
used the materials to train the
nutrition aides who work with home­makers
in local communities, and
they've come up with a variety of
creative ways to reach families.
In some counties, local grocery
stores have pitched in with special
promotions. Champaign County cur­rently
has a contest underway to see
how many homemakers can feed
their families for $58 a week for an
extended period-4 or 5 months.
There will be awards from local
stores for the homemakers who are
most successful, with the top award
of $58 going to the winner.
About one-tenth of EFNEP parti­cipants
in Illinois are Spanish­speaking,
and Grogan's staff felt
special efforts needed to be made to
tailor Making Food Dollars Count to
this group. Elsie Gonzalez,
Extension EFNEP advisor in the
north Chicago area office, translated
all the recipes from the booklet,
listing them side by side in English
and Spanish in the revised version.
"Having the recipes printed side
by side in both languages is especial­ly
helpful to Spanish-speaking
persons in cases where they are un­familiar
with ingredients," says
Gonzalez. "They can show the food
store clerk the corresponding name
of the ingredient in English and
learn what the item is."
EFNEP aides
see changes
According to Gonzalez, EFNEP
aides have found Making Food
Dollars Count materials useful in the
lessons they give Spanish-speaking
EFNEP participants. The aides say
the homemakers are now making
grocery lists more often, buying in
larger quantities for economy, and
making more price comparisons
between stores and brands.
They're also including some
different items on their grocery lists
to learn about them. Cottage cheese
is one of the new foods they are
trying, and EFNEP aides suggest
ways to use it.
"Many of the women come from
countries where they shopped daily
to get the food for meals," says
Gonzalez. "Here in the United States
they had to learn about storage
containers and correct storage ·
methods. They used to throw away
leftovers. Now they divide them up
into portions and freeze them."
EFNEP homemakers now try
generic products more, Gonzalez
says, and when they find the quality
comparable or satisfactory for the
planned use, they will purchase
them.
"Comparing prices has been very
helpful," she says. "Homemakers
find they can save 25 to 30 cents or
more on generics. Many didn't
realize the nutritive value is as good.
We also tell them to watch for sales
on name brands, since there may be
times when they are as good a buy
as the generics."
Food and Nutrition
Dollars unt
Making Food Dollars Count mat­erials
have been particularly useful
in teaching homemakers how to
follow recipes. Aides report that
more of their clients are now using
recipes to add variety to their meals.
Instead of using the recipes exactly
as they appear, however, aides
suggest homemakers add season­ings
to taste.
"Many recipes in Making Food
Dollars Count are very bland to
Hispanics," says Gonzalez. "The
aides suggest adding ingredients
like tomato sauce, garlic, onion,
pepper, and oregano, which are
typical ingredients in Hispanic
dishes."
Gonzalez is currently helping
USDA translate a number of other
information materials for low­income
families. She has just fin­ished
working on a translation of a
fact sheet on USDA commodities for
use by migrant workers in other
parts of the state.
Helping newcomers
learn about food
In New Jersey, nutritionist Yvonne
Jones has been using Making Food
Dollars Count materials to help
other groups with special nutrition
education needs. Like Gonzalez,
Jones has tailored the recipes to the
cultural preferences of the people
she serves.
In recent years, thousands of
Haitians and Cubans have settled in
northern New Jersey, joining
enclaves of earlier immigrants from
their home countries. In 1981, the
New Jersey State Department of
Health began a 2-year project,
funded through the Refugee
Assistance Act of 1980, to help
provide housing and health and
nutrition services to these people.
Yvonne Jones was the nutritionist
for the project.
According to project director
Lillian Bajda, one of the goals of the
project was developing a local
resource system which would help
the Haitians and Cubans become self­sufficient
by learning to use services
of local health departments, ambu­latory
care facilities, hospitals, and
health centers.
April1984
In each of the four counties where
the project operated-Essex, Union,
Hudson, and Passaic-bilingual out­reach
workers were hired to work
with these special groups. The
outreach workers found that
approximately one-fourth, 27
percent, of their problems were
nutrition related.
Yvonne Jones brought her ex­pertise
to bear on the problems,
counseling the outreach workers
about available community re­sources.
"She knew the resources of
the National School Lunch Program
for the children and congregate
meals for the elderly," Bajda says.
"When the Making Food Dollars
Count materials became available,
she found them a very useful
resource.
"Every dollar these people get has
to count," Bajda adds. "Food is
basic to their existence and these
materials help them budget wisely
and conserve."
Shopping tips
translated . ..
Jean-Pierre Henry, outreach
worker for the city of Irvington,
where several thousand Haitians
have settled, translated the Making
Food Dollars Count shopping tips
into French. Jones and Henry
supplemented the menus with
recipes using foods familiar to the
Haitians. They also introduced some
new foods, like winter squash, to
encourage the Haitians to include in
their diets some fruits and veget­ables
that are plentiful in the north­eastern
United States.
This past December, Jones,
Henry, and Gloria Clark, home
economist with the Essex County
Welfare Board, presented a nutrition
education program for the new
Haitians at the Irvington Public
Library. They talked about various
options shoppers have during
different seasons and showed the
Haitians samples of canned and
frozen foods, which are new to
them.
Questions asked by the Haitian
men and women showed their
interest in the information and also
the need for assistance with
translation of food ads. ''Right now
we need more materials in French
and Creole," Jones says, "however,
the Haitians do need to learn to read
in English."
Jones suggested that Eating for
Better Health, a Food and Nutrition
Service publication, be used as an
elementary reader by people taking
classes in English as a second
language. Holiday gift-wrapped
copies of the publication were
distributed at the December
meeting.
Similar activities
in other areas
Throughout the country, pro­grams
to reach low-income families
have been conducted. In many
areas, Extension home economists
have taken the lead in distributing
Making Food Dollars Count
materials and coordinating local
activities.
In Atlantic County, New Jersey,
Extension home economist Dianne
Lennon repr~duced 125 copies of
the USDA booklet to meet
immediate requests from families
who had seen Isabel Wolf on
television.
To reach a wider audience,
Lennon contacted the food editor of
13
14
the Atlantic City Press, who ran a
weekly series of five articles with the
menus and recipes from the booklet.
The Atlantic City Press is a daily
newspaper with a circulation o'f
56,000. Lennon has also trained five
EFNEP aides to use Making Food
Dollars Count materials in their
work with low-income homemakers.
"Making Food Dollars Count helps
document that a low-income family
of four can have a nutritious diet on
$58 a week," says Lennon. "Many
families had thought this was
impossible, but they found the
recipes were good and they enjoyed
the meals."
Lennon and EFNEP aide-coordi­nator
Alberta Martin helped train
staff at an emergency food
cupboard program in Cape May
County, using Making Food Dollars
Count as a guide in making up the
best food packages for families.
Ellawese Mclendon, another New
Jersey Extension home economist,
has developed a special program on
meal planning for low-income
families. Mclendon, who works in
Union County, presents the program
to community groups on request.
Barbara O'Neill, Extension home
economist in Sussex County,
featured Making Food Dollars Count
on her weekly radio show. She also
used the information as part of a
training program for directors of
group homes for the mentally re­tarded
early this year.
Private groups have also helped.
United Steel Workers of America is
distributing Making Food Dollars
Count to its 3,780 local unions to
provide food buying assistance to
unemployed members. To increase
the appeal of the materials to
members in southern states, the
union added a special southern
recipe supplement developed by the
Alabama Cooperative Extension
Service. A letter written by Leon
Lynch, USWA International Vice
President for Human Affairs, was
sent to local union representatives
with sample booklets and informa­tion
on how to order copies.
Workshops held
in some states
In some areas, state workshops
patterned after the regional work­shops
have been held. A number of
these workshops have been co­operative
efforts of USDA's Food
and Nutrition Service (FNS) and
state and local agencies.
In Tulsa, Oklahoma, for example,
a workshop was held for EFNEP
aides and others working with low­income
families. More than 100
people attended the workshop.
In Baton Rouge, Louisiana, a
Making Food Dollars Count
workshop drew more than 200
participants, including homemakers,
retired persons, and students, as
well as nutrition professionals and
aides. The workshop was organized
by staff of FNS' Southwest Regional
Office and three state agencies in
Louisiana-the state departments of
agriculture, education, and health
and human services.
June Burkett, regi.onal director of
nutrition and technical services for
FNS, was interviewed before the
workshop on a morning talk show,
"Tune-ln." Later, three television
stations covered Burkett's trip to a
local supermarket, where she
purchased the week's food supply
for the menus in the Making Food
Dollars Count booklet.
The workshop was videotaped for
use statewide with other audiences,
including EFNEP and WIC partici­pants,
and many newspapers ran
articles featuring the event. At the
workshop, Baton Rouge "PM
Magazine" host, Debra Sowers,
emceed a recipe demonstration and
explained preparation steps to the
audience.
In New Mexico, FNS staffers
worked with representatives of the
New Mexico Indian Health Service
to adapt the Making Food Dollars
Count menus for use in workshops
for Native American groups.
Copies of booklet
still available
USDA has limited supplies
available free to agencies and
organizations working with low­income
families. For information on
obtaining bulk copies, contact your
state Cooperative Extension Service
office or the nearest regional office
of the Food and Nutrition Service.
Single copies may be purchased for
50 cents each from the Consumer
Information Center, Pueblo,
Colorado 81009.
In the coming year, USDA is
planning additional educational
efforts and materials to help families
get the most nutritional value for
their food dollars.
article by Martha A. Poolton
Some Advice
From Two
Food Stamp
Participants
Careful Planning
Makes A Difference
As she walks through the aisles of
her favorite supermarket in Kalama­zoo,
Michigan, Marjorie Chapman
closely inspects the prices and
labels of the food she is going to
purchase. Until recently, Chapman
was solely responsible for raising a
family of six.
With no formal training in nutri­tion,
she learned, by doing and fig­uring
out what works best, how to
budget and prepare meals for six
children and herself. Chapman now
has two daughters, aged 11 and 16,
living at home, and she is looking
for a full-time job.
The experience she's gained in
wise food shopping and meal prepara­tion
are still serving her well as she
meets her family's food needs on
$121 a month in food stamps.
Begins with
the newspaper
In a way, Marjorie Chapman
approaches her shopping like a
soldier. She launches her attack­her
monthly shopping trip-with a
variety of weapons. "My first
weapon is the newspaper," she ex­plains.
"I get the food ads and study
them, particularly for the week when
I do my major grocery shopping."
She obtains her food stamps
usually on the ninth or tenth day of
each month. "That week, I go to the
store and buy about 90 percent of
what I need for the entire month,"
she says. Her remaining food
stamps are saved for items such as
fresh milk, bread, and meat that she
expects to go on sale later in the
month.
Chapman says her 18-cubic-foot
freezer helps a lot. "I made a deliber­ate
effort several years ago to buy a
freezer," she says. "When something
goes on sale, especially meat, I can
fill up my freezer and not have to
Food and Nutrition
buy it again until there's another
sale."
She estimates that her freezer
saves her $15 to $20 a month in food
costs and that the added cost of
electricity is only about $2 a month.
"You can sometimes find a good
used freezer for $50 and, if you go in
with a neighbor on it, it's even
cheaper to operate when it's full,"
she says.
Even without a freezer, a food
stamp household can save on food
costs, says Chapman. 'There is
nothing wrong with filling your
shelves full of canned goods, and
there are even some canned meats
that occasionally are on sale.
"I'm the kind of person who gets
uncomfortable when my pantry gets
low, so I deliberately look for in­expensive
canned items that I can
use to make meals in a pinch," she
says.
For example, Chapman's family
enjoys spaghetti dishes, which can
easily be made using a can of mush­room
stems and pieces, a jar of
spaghetti sauce, a box of spaghetti,
and cheese.
Shops monthly
for most foods
Chapman makes sure to keep a
running inventory of foods used and
April1984
Armed with her newspaper and keeping an eye
out for special buys, Marjorie Chapman shops for
food at her favorite supermarket.
needed during the month. "Try to
keep a record of everything you use
during one month, no matter how
many times you go to the store," she
advises.
"You'll get a better handle on how
much food you actually need, and,
in the next month when you go
shopping again, make sure you buy
as much of everything as you need
on one trip so you won't have to go
back again."
Shopping once a month saves on
transportation costs. Chapman
owns a car and neighbors often join
her on her monthly shopping trip.
"But if you don't have a car," she
says, "it's not as expensive to pay
someone to take you to the store
once a month as it is several times a
month."
When Chapman does her monthly
shopping, she spends quite a bit of
time looking for generic foods.
These are foods that are not identi­fied
by brand name and that cost
less than brand name items because
they are packaged less elaborately.
Chapman's favorite supermarket
displays all of its generic products in
one long aisle. There she stocks up
on canned fruits and vegetables,
macaroni products, peanut butter,
and other nonbrand items.
She has found that these items are
priced from 10 to 50 percent less
than brand name items. A 2-pound
jar of generic peanut butter, for
example, costs Chapman around
$1.39, while the same size brand
name peanut butter sells for some­what
more, from $1.59 and higher.
Her supermarket also carries fresh
generic meats and vegetables, items
not usually associated with the term
"generic."
"I was surprised myself when I
came across these items," she
recalls. "They've got, for instance,
fresh apples marked 'generic.' These
apples come in odd sizes, some ap­pearing
lopsided. But when you
cook them for apple sauce, their size
changes anyway and your stomach
isn't going to know the difference,
so who cares?"
Shops carefully
for bargains
On her monthly shopping trip,
Chapman does not hesitate to stop
by the rack of produce marked
"reduced.~~ Recently she found 4.13
pounds of bananas for $1.03 or
about 25 cents a pound.
"The peels were turning a little
brown, but the bananas were just
ripe enough to make a great banana
cake," she says. That day, bananas
were regularly priced at 39 cents a
15
Buying generic products can often result in sav­ings,
Chapman finds. Her store displays generic
products in one long aisle, making it easy for
shoppers to find them.
pound, so on one item alone, she
saved 58 cents.
For the spaghetti and the salad
her children like, Chapman found
three green peppers for 19 cents on
the reduced rack. Usually, three of
these sell for $1 .00, so on this buy,
she saved 81 cents. "After a while,
those cents add up to dollars," she
smiles. "The peppers were only
slightly bruised, and for a sauce
they were just fine."
To make her food stamps stretch,
Chapman avoids buying convenience
foods whose prices are often mark­ed
up to reflect processing and
advertising costs.
"However," she says, "sometimes
it's worth buying a convenience
food just once to see if you like it
and also to save the label that lists
the ingredients," she explains.
"You can invest in the ingredients
listed and experiment for yourself by
trying to duplicate the food. That's
how I got my recipe for skillet
lasagna, which I use over and over
again."
Prepares most
foods herself
Teaching her family good eating
habits has helped Chapman manage
her food budget. "I started with the
children when they were young,
having them eat what was prepared
but also asking them what foods
16
they liked. They learned to stop re­jecting
foods when I'd ask them,
'How do you know you don't like
that vegetable if you've never tasted
it before?"
Occasionally, the children com­plain
about the food. "My 16-year­old
complained about what I was
preparing, so I told her to figure out
what we should buy for the month."
Her daughter, having picked up
some of her mother's techniques,
did the shopping but realized how
careful she had to be to stay within
the budget. "She now has sug­gestions
for low-cost meals, par­ticularly
those combining meat with
more vegetables."
Her two daughters also like sand­wiches
a great deal, particularly
peanut butter and jelly sandwiches,
which provide a good deal of protein.
Chapman shops at a surplus baked
goods store where, on a Wednesday,
she can get four or five loaves of
bread for $1.00. She buys a month's
worth of bread for less than $5.00
and stores it in the freezer.
The family's food budget was
helped when USDA surplus cheese
and butter became available. "When
the kids get a hold of that cheese,
there go cheese sandwiches like
crazy," Chapman laughs. "They love
it, and it's some of the best cheese
I've ever eaten, except for some I
made at home once."
Chapman prides herself on making
many foods from scratch, including
cookies, cakes, biscuits, pudding,
and even yogurt. She makes yogurt
with 36 ounces of warm water, 2%
cups of powdered milk, and %cup
of plain yogurt.
A yogurt processor may seem like
a luxury item, but Chapman finds it
saves her time over making yogurt
at home using other methods, and
it's more economical than buying
yogurt at the store.
"I will spend my last money, if
necessary, to buy a piece of
equipment for the kitchen that can
save me money," she says. "When
somebody wants to give me a
present, I ask for this or that for the
kitchen."
A crock pot and a deep fryer were
gifts from friends, and a blender was
a gift from one of her children. She
also has an electric grinder.
"If chuck steak is on sale for less
money than hamburger," she says,
"I buy it and grind it on my own.
Sure, you may lay out money buying
the appliance, but you save a lot of
money in the long run."
Plans to help
other families
With her experience in food buying
and preparation, Marjorie Chapman
is now planning a workshop for
Kalamazoo area residents on living
on a tight budget. "If I can do it,
maybe I can teach somebody else
how to do it," she says.
Chapman believes getting nutri­tion
information to low-income
people is important, and she prefers
the workshop approach. Publications
on nutrition help, she says, but she
advises against providing too much
printed material during a person's
first encounter with a social service
office.
"This kind of information is
seldom absorbed if it's given to you
all at once," she says. "But you still
need it in a hurry, so maybe case­workers
could provide details about
local workshops and resources on
shopping wisely and getting good
nutrition."
For her workshop, Chapman is
contacting newspapers for extra
copies of food ads, collecting USDA
materials and other publications,
and arranging for transportation for
workshop participants to go on
shopping trips together. "If you
don't actually use the information
you get, you soon lose it," she says.
Besides planning her workshop,
Chapman volunteers as secretary of
the board of directors of the Douglas
Community Association in Kalama­zoo
and as chairperson of the educa­tion
committee for the Kalamazoo
Northside Association for Com­munity
Development, for which she
edits the monthly newsletter.
Most of all, she is looking for a job
in business. Over the years, she has
taken college courses and recently
graduated from Western Michigan
University with a bachelor's degree
in business administration.
Once she obtains that job, she
doesn't plan to forget what she
learned while raising a family of six
on a low income. She even has an
idea for another workshop she'd
eventually like to give in her spare
time. "I call it 'Farewell to Welfare,' "
she smiles.
For more information, write:
Marjorie Chapman
Douglas Community Association
1000 Paterson Street
Kalamazoo, Michigan 49007
Telephone: 616-343-6185
article and photos
by Victor Omelczenko
Food and Nutrition
Using Coupons
Helps, Too ...
Joy Alexander, a member of the
Walthall County, Mississippi, welfare
advisory council, arrived at the
October council session early. Alex­ander,
a food stamp participant, had
some news she wanted to share with
the other members.
"Look," she said, holding up a
$1 dollar food stamp, "th is month for
the first time ever I have part of my
food stamp allotment left over." She
explained that her food stamps
usually ran out before the month
ended. This particular month, how­ever,
with the use of cents-off
coupons, she had stretched her food
stamps over the full issuance period.
As Alexander shared her shopping
techniques with the council, her en­thusiasm
spread. Someone suggest­ed
she teach a workshop on cou­poning
for other food stamp families
-a suggestion she willingly
accepted.
With some hasty planning, she
held her first workshop in early
November. Afterwards, many people
-both food stamp participants and
the general public-called to say
they were interested in attending if
another workshop were held. Alex­ander
scheduled a second workshop
-for February and expanded the
agenda to include tips on food
Being organized is the key to Joy Alexander's
success with coupons. She carefully saves and
files coupons for foods she uses, like this one for
ketchup and others (above) for soup.
April1984
preparation, shopping, and bud­geting,
based on her own personal
experience.
Although Alexander hopes she
doesn't stay on the Food Stamp Pro­gram
long, she says she is not
ashamed to participate because she
needs the assistance and she knows
she uses her food stamps wisely.
Teaching others how to make the
best use of their food stamps, she
feels, is her way of expressing her
gratitude for the help she receives.
Alexander lost her job last year.
Her unemployment benefits have
been exhausted, and jobs are scarce
in Walthall County where unemploy­ment
averaged 10 percent last year.
She has two teenage daughters still
living at home-one of whom has a
serious illness. In addition, she
helps care for an 84-year-old aunt.
Careful budgeting is a necessity for
the Alexander family.
Sometimes saves
$15 or $20 a week
"Couponing helps me get my
mind off my problems," Alexander
says. Her self-taught couponing
techniques are uncomplicated but
effective. So effective, in fact, she
bought $17.61 in merchandise for
28 cents the first time she used
cents-off coupons.
According to Alexander, this was
an unusually great savings resulting
from a special promotion the store
was having that day. Still, she says,
even on regular days, savings are
often substantial.
In a typical week, Alexander saves
between $6.50 and $12.00 on food
by using coupons. If her grocery
store sponsors a double coupon
promotion, she can save $15 or $20.
"Before I started couponing, I was
without food stamps at least one
week each month," she explains.
"Now I can usually make my food
stamps last all month."
When she receives her monthly
food stamp allotment, she divides
the total by four to determine what
amount she can spend on food in a
week, then she places the food
stamp books in four envelopes-one
envelope for each week.
She checks the grocery store ads
in the local news and identifies
those sale items for which she has
coupons. By using her cents-off
coupons primarily for sale items, her
savings add up more quickly.
Her coupons come from a variety
of sources. Alexande.r clips some
from the local paper or from the
back of food packages. Others are
given to her by friends or relatives.
For example, her mother, who lives
in Montana, regularly mails her
coupons. Also, Alexander and four
other ~omen in her community have
formed a coupon swapping club.
In her workshops, Alexander told
participants the location of three
coupon exchange boxes in Walthall
County and encouraged them to
17
take advantage of the exchanges
like she does. Although the county
food stamp certification office does
not have a coupon exchange box,
both Alexander and county welfare
director Sharon Whitt like the idea
of placing one there.
Do most participants know they
can use cents-off coupons with their
food stamps?
"No," answers Alexander quickly.
"After the workshop, several people
receiving food stamps contacted me
and said they didn't know they could
use coupons with their stamps."
Store employees are not always
informed either, she observes. "The
first time I tried to use coupons, a
grocery store cashier told me she
could not accept coupons with food
stamps. I didn't try to use coupons
again until I saw someone else use
them with food stamps," Alexander
says. "I later found out that the store
did accept coupons with food
stamps. The cashier just didn't know
the policy."
County welfare director Whitt
agrees that the average food stamp
participant doesn't know cents-off
coupons can be used with food
stamps. "If participants do know,"
Whitt says, "they probably don't
18
realize that coupons are worthwhile."
That's why Whitt believes Joy
Alexander's workshops are so
effective. Alexander's personal
example proves couponing does
help.
Emphasizes buying
nutritious foods
At the workshops, Alexander
displayed several food products,
cents-off coupons, and refund
blanks. She described where to find
coupons, how to file them, and how
to redeem them to achieve maxi­mum
savings. Her presentation was
practical and easily understood.
She advised workshop partici­pants
to buy nutritious foods with
their coupons. "Just because you
have a coupon, don't use it if you
don't need the item or if it's for
something that's not good for you,"
she cautioned the group, describing
how she gives away coupons for
highly sugared cereals in exchange
for coupons for other foods.
Foods for which coupons are
most commonly available include
cereals, dairy products, and condi­ments.
Alexander finds few, if any,
coupons for meat or fresh fruit and
vegetables, but she has other ways,
besides couponing, to stretch her
food budget to cover such
necessities.
Last summer she canned 500 jars
of food and filled two freezers with
produce from her garden. She cans
soup, freezes fruits and vegetables,
and makes her own jelly and pre­serves.
"It's amazing what you can
do with even a little plot of land,"
she says.
Surprisingly, Alexander grew up
in a city, but she loves the country
life-gardening, preserving foods,
living off the land. She can't under­stand
why some people no longer
see the need to plant a garden once
they qualify for food stamps.
Not having coupons for meat
doesn't bother Alexander because
she doesn't buy much meat. What
meat she buys, she extends by
making dishes such as soup, chili,
and chicken pot pies. She also
serves dried beans and dried peas
as meat alternates, especially when
the budget is tight.
"I try to stick to my weekly food
stamp budget. If I give out, we eat
red beans and rice one day a week,"
she says. "If I see a bargain on a
food my family likes, I might dip into
the next week's food stamps. I know
Food and Nutrition
I can count on the foods I have
canned or frozen if I run out of food
stamps."
If participants learned just one
lesson from her workshops,
Alexander hopes they remember to
save their change from $1 food
stamps to purchase food. When she
receives such change, she places it
in an envelope with her food stamps
until she buys food again. If she has
enough cash at the time, she pays
the cents instead of breaking a $1
food stamp.
"It's abusing the program to buy
a candy bar and then spend the
change for cigarettes. It makes me
angry to see that," she says. "I'm
trying to teach people to save the
change for what it was intended."
Offers advice
on other savings
Besides tips on couponing and
stretching food dollars, Alexander's
second workshop covered a range
of other money-saving tips-from
carpooling to save on trips to the
grocery store to cooking on wood­burning
heaters (commonly used in
Walthall County) to save on utility
expenses.
And, since the second workshop
coincided with the county's distri­bution
of USDA-donated cheese,
butter, and nonfat dry milk, Alex­ander
discussed ways to use these
products. She prepared one of her
recipes, a cocoa mix made from
nonfat dry milk, and served it to
workshop attendees. As a bonus,
workshop participants also received
copies of the USDA publication,
"Making Food Dollars Count," to
help them at home in planning
menus for low-cost meals.
Sharon Whitt enthusiastically
supports Alexander's efforts. Her
attitude: "There are changes we'd
like to see in the Food Stamp Pro­gram,
but we can't sit around and
wait for Congress to make them. We
have to help people right now make
their food stamps stretch."
For more information on the
workshops in Walthall County, write:
Sharon Whitt, Director
Walthall County Department of
Welfare
P.O. Box 430
Tylertown, Mississippi 39667
article by Brenda Schuler
photos by Larry Rana
April1984
Making Food
Dollars Count:
A Food Writer's
Perspective
Savvy consumers know that one
of the cheapest and most readily
available sources of information
about food purchasing and nutrition
is their local newspaper. And,
according to Jean Thwaite, food
writer for the Atlanta Journal and
the Atlanta Constitution, consumers
do take advantage of that informa­tion.
On days when the Atlanta
newspapers carry the weekly food
section, each paper's circulation
jumps by about 10,000 copies.
Thwaite, speaking to participants
of USDA's "Making Food Dollars
Count" workshop in Atlanta last
year, stressed how newspapers can
help low-income shoppers.
"Sixty-three percent of the people
with incomes of $15,000 or less read
the newspaper 5 days a week," said
Thwaite. "Of the people who are out
of work, 64 percent read the paper
5 days a week."
Suggests using
ads and coupons
Newspapers' grocery advertise­ments
provide the most help to low­income
shoppers. By reading the
ads, shoppers can determine which
is the closest store with the greatest
sales on food they want or need.
But, Thwaite cautioned, unadver­tised
specials are still sometimes the
best buys. Shoppers should be alert
for such specials and be flexible
enough in their meal planning to
take advantage of them.
"Cents-off coupons are another
useful money-saving source," she
said. "Approximately 73 percent of
all shoppers use coupons, and 80
percent of the coupons redeemed
come from newspapers."
Each Atlanta newspaper carries
an average of $10 in food coupons a
week. Occasionally, the value of the
coupons totals more than double
that amount.
Thwaite, like all food writers, tries
to offer a variety of feature articles
and columns which meet the needs
of most of her readers. However,
readers who must stretch their food
budgets top her priority list. For
example, she spends at least half a
day each week compiling an article
on best buys at Atlanta stores to
assist shoppers with limited
budgets.
"My biggest fear is that some day
I'll miss the lowest price or that the
stores will change their ads prior to
press time," she says. Although she
admits researching and writing the
column is a grueling task, Thwaite
considers it an essential service.
Readers can
get more help
Other consumer-oriented articles
she prints routinely include "Dial a
Dietitian" and "Dollar Saver."
"Dial a Dietitian," a public service
of the Atlanta Dietetic Association,
offers readers a chance to ask
questions about food and nutrition
by calling a special telephone
number. Professional dietitians, who
volunteer their time, return the calls
with answers. A summary of each
week's questions and answers
appears in the Atlanta Journal and
Constitution food sections-a
regular feature of the papers for the
past 15 years.
"Dollar Saver," written by Atlanta
area Extension Service home
economists is designed for low­income
families in particular. The
popular weekly column aeals with
wise shopping practices, planning
and preparing thrifty meals, and
food preservation techniques.
"What I print is not unique," says
Thwaite. "There must be 50 or more
food editors in the country running
similar features. Our purpose is all
the same-to provide information, a
little fun, and most of all, something
worthwhile."
article by Brenda Schuler
19
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