Healthy Eating for Hispanic Families

The Journal of the American Medical Association reports that Hispanic children and adults have one of the highest risks for obesity. To be proactive, the Carroll County Cooperative Extension Service Family and Consumer Sciences agent has worked with ESL program interpreters to teach nutrition classes for young Hispanic families. This year the agent added a monthly Early Head Start nutrition program for young, Hispanic mothers with children under 3 years old. More than 190 parents and youth participated. Families were taught basic nutrition, selecting food in the supermarket, low-fat cooking, child nutrition, healthy snacks for children, and seasonal vegetables and the ripening process. A post-evaluation of participants revealed that the program increased the participants knowledge in most of these areas. 
To see the entire Building Strong Families county profile for Carroll county, please click the link.