Reporter: Annette Shepardson
I am a Nutrition Educator for the University of MN Extension Services I collaborate with Winona Volunteer Services. Every month I provide lessons using food s from food shelf and provide education on how to incorporate healthy foods into their diets. This particular month my lesson was on Fruit and Vegetable consumption and adding more to their diets. There was one woman who was under the assumption that canned foods had no nutritional value and it doesn’t pay to eat them. She also didn’t want to try raw vegetables because of the problem she has with arthritis and peeling, and chewing harder foods also being an issue. We discussed the importance as a group of getting all the food groups but especially Fruits and Vegetables in any form. We discussed different options of how we could solve this challenge and found that there were others in the group that felt the same way. I provided ideas, education, and large print recipes that they could use. I also suggested softer foods like canned apple sauce, cooking foods differently like making soups with canned vegetables. The following month I came back and we looked other the goal sheets I had distributed the month before. Four people had specifically stated they used the ideas presented in class and had eaten more fruits and vegetables because of the new idea’s. one lady had even stated she was “excited to come to the food shelf after my class, because she had all these new tools to help her prepare healthy foods”. These changes empower the participants and help them stay self sufficient and healthy which impacts the entire community.