Expanded Food & Nutrition Education Program (EFNEP)

Expanded Food & Nutrition Education Program (EFNEP)

Do you have an hour a week to learn new ideas to stretch your grocery dollars and make healthier choices for your family? EFNEP could work for you! Let’s talk about low-cost quick and healthy meals, and how to keep your family healthy and active.

The Expanded Food and Nutrition Program is an evidence-based program designed to assist limited-resource families to learn how to eat healthy meals on a budget, make better food choices, and increase physical activity, thereby improving nutritional well-being. EFNEP meets participants where they are in their relationship with healthy eating, food preparation and physical activity, offering a space for conversation and collaborative learning. The program offers a series of interactive lessons to SNAP and WIC-eligible, resource-limited families and youth free of charge and aims to help participants make small, sustainable changes for long-term success.

• Sessions are one hour, once per week (does not have to be consecutive) for six to eight weeks and can be held at a community center, school, place of worship, in a home or online. Day and evening classes are available on a rolling schedule.
• Workshops take place one-on-one or in groups.
• Topics include: stretching food dollars, food safety, reducing salt and sugar intake, and making simple, healthy meals for the family. New recipes and ways to incorporate physical fitness into daily routines are included in every class.

As a result of EFNEP education, graduates of the program

• Improve their diets
• Improve their nutritional practices
• Stretch their food dollars further
• Handle food more safely
• Increase their physical activity level
• Receive individualized connections to local resources and opportunities

Participants who graduate from the program also receive a Certificate of Completion, an EFNEP Cookbook with delicious and affordable recipes along with kitchen tools to support healthy eating.

       

Since 1969, the Expanded Food and Nutrition Education Program (EFNEP) has successfully addressed critical societal concerns by employing paraprofessional staff and influencing nutrition and physical activity behaviors of low-income families, particularly those with young children. Through a community-based, relationship-driven, hands-on educational approach, EFNEP has directly impacted economic, obesity, and food insecurity challenges that hinder the health and well-being of this nation. The EFNEP program is funded by USDA through Cornell University.

Last updated October 6, 2023