2021 Annual Conference: Raising Reliance and Resilience

Professionals play an important role in educating consumers about the importance of healthy eating. The latest edition of the Dietary Guidelines can help Americans of all ages and diverse backgrounds achieve a healthy dietary pattern to support health and prevent the onset of disease. This includes nutrition recommendations for infants and children 2 years of age and younger.  The translation of this guidance relies on the use of appropriate and applicable consumer messaging techniques. The panel will provide an overview of the science behind the Dietary Guidelines and findings from research supporting the translation of its key nutrition messages.

This session will explore the trauma and resilience of communities working on food justice issues including food policies, food sovereignty, and the food system that will increase access to healthy, affordable foods and economic advancement in communities of color. Organized by the Advisory Committee on Public Policy. 

Since March 2020, representatives of 35 organizations in a community of practice have focused on healthy food access and consumption. As a global pandemic and national conversations about systemic racism laid bare inequities in the current system, the community has aligned around a shared vision of an equitable food system and the changes needed to realize that vision. In this session, participants will learn about the work of the community of practice, reflect on practices that contribute to racial inequities, and identify steps they can take—as individuals, within their organizations, and in collaboration with others—to move toward the desired future.

5.5

7.1

Wicked problems have nudged nutrition educators to harness the power of new tools, partnerships, and strategies to advance and sustain the health of communities. Policy, system, and environmental (PSE) approaches are powerful ways to achieve healthy lifestyles, food security, and food system sustainability. Using a case study approach, this session will showcase a systemic change framework in which nutrition educators can bundle direct education initiatives with PSE strategies and develop robust evaluation strategies for greater impact, thereby raising reliance, resilience, and relevance of the nutrition profession.

Handout 2

6.4

10.1

The evolution of Native American food traditions is informed and shaped by lessons of ancient heritage and applying them to modern life. These teachings are encouraging Indigenous perspectives and inspiring new approaches to culinary arts and dietary choices. In this session, Chef Sean Sherman (Oglala) and Valerie Segrest (Muckleshoot) will share strategies they currently utilize to promote collaborations, policies, and social movement building that are deeply rooted in Native American food traditions.

Participants will learn about needs assessments and designing appropriate interventions to support food-insecure students. Speakers will provide examples of incorporating student feedback using mixed-methods and emphasize the reliance on campus and community partners to develop effective strategies given the changing needs and unforeseen challenges of remote modalities. This program will help participants identify numerous ways to determine effective use of resources to support the basic needs and overall success of students. The speakers come from varying contexts of urban, rural, residential and commuter campuses, comprising contrasting student demographics/needs and will provide data-driven evidence to design adaptable and resilient interventions. Sponsored by the Higher Education Division.

8.1

8.8

10.1

This session will feature CHWs from projects funded by USDA’s Gus Schumacher Nutrition Incentive Programs (GusNIP), which seeks to reduce food insecurity and increase the purchase and consumption of fruits and vegetables among low-income households by providing monetary incentives at the point of purchase. This session highlights GusNIP grantees who utilize a community health worker (CHW) model to provide nutrition education and support, in order to augment their nutrition incentive programs. These diverse CHWs will share their experiences and best practices for elevating the impact of nutrition incentive programs through culturally responsive nutrition education and reaching members of their priority audience.

8.7

9.3

This session will discuss effective strategies for conducting nutrition education interventions (NEI) based on 4 systematic reviews covering studies implemented at the global level between 2009 and 2018. The systematic reviews cover effective NEI among adults, children, people with low literacy, and online-based NEI. The session will differentiate between food insecurity (FI) and severe FI based on coping strategies and associated nutritional outcomes. This interactive session will include examples of ways to address FI and health illiteracy for diminishing their effect on nutritional status and behavior. Participants will understand important elements as they design NEI across the lifecycle.

8.7

9.3

This presentation will describe an internal immersion experience in which students were exposed to three cultural centers at their university as part of a nutrition communication course.  It will detail the collaborations established, implementation experience, key lessons learned by students, and dual benefits to students and stakeholders.

9.1

9.3

The presentation will introduce participants to FAO’s work on sustainable healthy diets. The session will start by presenting the FAO/WHO sustainable healthy diets guiding principles and why they are urgently needed. The session will also present FAO’s ongoing work to quantify sustainable healthy diets, a critical step to understanding current trends, setting targets, and monitoring progress on sustainable healthy diets across global, national, and sub-national regions. Challenges, opportunities and ways forward will be described at the end of the session.

Child care plays an important role in supporting low-income families and ensuring children get a healthy start. This session will explore how the USDA’s Child and Adult Care Food Program (CACFP)supports the health and wellness of children. Attendees will learn about strategies to empower child care operators to provide mealtimes and educational experiences that assist children in developing healthy eating habits. This session will specifically address farm-to-child care education, culinary and meal pattern training for CACFP operators, and tested nutrition messages for the child care setting.

8.8

9.1

Our increasingly industrialized and concentrated food system has produced a largely unhealthy food supply, poor diets, and alarming obesity along with dramatic increases in global food insecurity.  Once open and commonly-shared knowledge and skills around food acquisition and preparation, along with nutrition expertise has become subsumed under the dominant corporate control of the food supply chain, and with it production and dissemination of research and communications. A return to a greater food commons is essential to reverse these trends. Sponsored by the Sustainable Food Systems Division. 

Handout

5.5

6.4

In today’s modern and increasingly tumultuous times, in-person education is becoming less of an absolute and more of a luxury. Environmental disturbances, threats of violence, and global pandemics, have made online learning not only an enrichment option but a necessity. While online learning has begun to permeate the K-12 and higher education, it is still unclear how it can be effectively utilized for public health interventions, which often necessitate hands-on and experiential learning. This session will examine the facilitators and barriers of a virtual public health intervention to improve food literacy and cooking skills amongst elementary students.

8.7

10.1

Many populations are bombarded with often conflicting or confusing nutrition information, and many struggle with poor diet behaviors. This session will explore the effects of nutrition literacy on multiple populations, and provide educators with ideas and tools for communicating nutrition information clearly with their audiences. Special emphasis will be placed upon the particular challenges and strategies for reaching Latino populations as well as discussion of the effectiveness of nutrition literacy assessment in positively changing diet behaviors.

8.6

10.1

Researchers and educators have the responsibility to accelerate gender I&D and work toward equity across the research ecosystem. This session highlights elements of gender I&D, progress made by women researchers and disparities for women in funding, career progression and research dissemination. It provides guidance on how to integrate sex and gender-based analysis in research toward inclusive and representative science, including Elsevier’s efforts to promote gender I&D using a data-informed, evidence-based approach: The Researcher Journey through a Gender Lens, the Gender Equity Taskforce, self-reported Gender, Race & Ethnicity Identity data, and I&D efforts related to intersecting social identities.

Amidst heightened awareness of police violence and racial injustice towards Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPoC), various organizations have begun to question how to improve diversity and inclusion in nutrition and related fields. However, these discussions often miss an important voice: students. This session aims to uplift the oft unheard voices of students from racially and geographically diverse backgrounds. After a panel discussion on the current state of diversity and inclusion, participants will breakout into discussion groups and collaborate with students to cultivate ground-up solutions for diversity and inclusion action plans at their own institutions. Sponsored by the Student Division.

8.8

9.2

This session includes presentations by land-grant university researchers and partner food relief organizations that collaborate to explain the challenges and implications of collective actions that target root causes and push boundaries during the pandemic. While remaining resilient and meeting increasing demands on these programs, it is critical to systematically collect feedback from community members participating in these programs and provide recommendations for supporting these organizations through monetary support, gleaning efforts, advocacy methods, and/or policy change. This session will provide innovative multidisciplinary strategies for meal relief and nutrition education opportunities that are effective in meeting the needs of diverse groups.

5.5

6.4

Adolescents can be prime targets for nutrition education interventions, yet many find teens difficult to reach. In this session, panelists will discuss three evidence-based curricula that have been used successfully with low-income middle and high school-aged teens: Choose Health: Food, Fun, and Fitness; Teen Cuisine; and Rev It Up! Panelists will discuss implementing innovative methods and adapting materials for virtual use. Participants will then receive hands-on exposure to activities and materials from each of the programs in an interactive breakout session. Finally, tips, best practices, and lessons learned will be shared during a Q&A session with the panelists.

Handout

8.8

8.11

Our diverse panel will help provide an overview of the key historical and contemporary policy and programmatic approaches taken by national, tribal, state, and local governments during natural disasters and other emerging crises, with a particular emphasis on nutrition education and behavior. We will hear from non-government, government, academic, and extension about the facilitators and barriers to effectively and efficiently ensure federal nutrition assistance and nutrition education before, during, and after natural disasters and other emerging crises.

Slides (Fleischhacker)

Slides (Haynes-Maslow)

Slides (Sosna)

5.4

5.5

O6 – Depressive symptoms, not food insecurity, increased during COVID-19 pandemic in at-risk group with metabolic syndrome

O7 – Eating competence relationship to biopsychosocial characteristics in metabolic syndrome replicates the general population

O8 – Translation of the National Diabetes Prevention Program into Cooperative Extension: Barriers and Facilitators

O10 – Pivoting Amidst COVID-19: Feedback and Behavioral Outcomes Among SNAP-Ed Virtual Nutrition Education Participants

O11 – Association Between Food Security and Food Skills Education Among Cooking Matters Participants

O12 – The Inside Scoop: Sensory Evaluation Feedback from Peer Educators Provides Important Perspective on Direct Education Recipes

O14 – Sugar-Sweetened Beverage Consumption among Youth in North Carolina

O15 – Montana Offers Innovative Virtual School Nutrition Leadership Institute During COVID-19

O16 – Preliminary Efficacy of a Virtual Nutrition Intervention for Adolescents with Autism Spectrum Disorder

O18 – Hispanic Caregivers’ Communication Preferences for Content, Delivery and Sources of Nutrition Education: Qualitative Findings

O19 – A mindful parenting intervention for obesity prevention in early childhood.

O20 – Family Child Care Home Menu Quality: Happy Healthy Homes Baseline

O18

O19

O22 – Food Insecurity and Opportunities for Interventions: Perspectives of American Indian Elders from an Urban Health Care Clinic

O23 – Community Stakeholders Perspectives on Food Security of Families with Children Ages 0 to 3 years Before and During COVID-19

O24 – Preliminary evaluation of a university food pantry during COVID-19 using implementation science metrics

O26 – Local Farmers and Food Procurement in Mississippi Delta Schools: Fertile Ground

O27 – Appreciation for food mediates the association of meal-related rituals learned in childhood with avoiding food waste behavior in Japanese adults

O28 – What’s the Catch? A Virtual Education Program to Increase Seafood Intake of New Jersey Residents

O30 – Meeting the shopper online: Adapting food retail programming during COVID-19

O31 – Determining Low-Income Fathers’ Preferred mHealth Nutrition-Related Topics, Features, and Delivery Methods

O32 – Leveraging Every Door Direct Mail for Remote Recruitment of a Rural Study Sample: Response Rate and Representativeness

O34 – Change in Employment Status Due to the COVID-19 Pandemic, SNAP Participation, and Food Security Status

O35 – Global Food and Nutrition Insecurity due to COVID-19 over 2020: Perspectives from a Survey of Nutrition Educators across 5 continents.

O36 – College Students Cope to Achieve Food Security During the COVID-19 Pandemic

O38 – How Seafood Says “Sustainable”: A Content Analysis of Retail Package Labels

O39 – Validating the Campus Food Aid Self-assessment Tool (C-FAST)

O40 – A Comparison of Food Security Screeners in a Metropolitan Primary Care Center

O42 – Examining the Geospatial Characteristics of Covid-19 Pandemic Summer Meal Distribution Sites in North Carolina

O43 – Timing of WIC Enrollment and Exclusive Breastfeeding: Results from the National WIC-Infant Toddler Feeding Practices Survey 2

O44 – Comparing the Relationship between Food Parenting Practices and Concern for Child Weight Between Siblings

O46 – Social Media Use of West Virginia Community Programs Participants to Inform Online Health Educational Programming

O47 – Chat with Maya: Assessing the Usability of the Texas WIC Chatbot

O48 – Urban, Low-income Teens’ Opinions on Game-Based Classroom Nutrition and Physical Activity Lessons

Aging creates systemic ripple effects across individuals, families, communities, and industries with far-reaching societal implications. Yet ageism exists and negatively impacts the health and wellbeing of older adults.  As people live longer and healthier lives, nutrition professionals must be better prepared to work with this group as valued contributors to society. This session will provide an overview of ageism, discuss strategies to reframe aging, enhance didactic curriculums to be more inclusive of aging, and promote aging research and programming within SNEB. Sponsored by the Healthy Aging Division. 

8.8

9.4

Food systems research and education is essential in the quest to support healthy people, healthy communities and a healthy planet. This is done through a variety of transdisciplinary collaborations, partnerships and programs.  This session will explore different facets of resilient and sustainable food systems research, including research on personalized nutrition, social science at the community level with diverse populations, and innovative research initiatives that measure the environmental impact on global sustainable food systems. Participants will leave this session inspired by existing and new research areas and equipped with practical resources that can be applied today. Sponsored by the Nutrition Educators in the Food Sector Division. 

9.4

10.1

During the global pandemic, nutrition and food systems were disrupted and nutrition professionals had to adjust quickly to reach the public in new ways. As programs and activities shifted there was a need to adapt to the new normal. This session will explore how different agencies responded to the COVID-19 pandemic and will share actionable, successful strategies the field can use to better support emerging needs.

8.1

10.1

Speakers: Elizabeth Rahavi, RD; Jacqueline Haven, MS, RD; Stephenie Fu

Learn about what’s new with the Dietary Guidelines and find out about consumer research and new resources you can find on our new website!  We listened to you, conducted consumer research, and developed reliable resources all reaching diverse audiences, ages, cultures and income.

Tried and true, the free Start Simple with MyPlate app has been used by thousands of consumers. Easy to use on your phone or smartwatch, to set and check off MyPlate food group goals. Success stories from communities and partners from the MyPlate National Strategic Partnership will share examples and implications for practice.

8.8

9.3

Systems science is an interdisciplinary field that aims to frame, understand, and discuss complex issues and problems, including those in the public health arena.  System dynamics and agent-based modeling applications in nutrition research will be discussed, thus highlighting innovative approaches for nutrition educators to view the complexities of the food system and obesity epidemic.  These systems science approaches can be utilized to inform intervention and policy efforts across the ecological spheres. Sponsored by the Research Division. 

6.2

10.1

The COVID-19 pandemic resulted in food shortages and unemployment, both of which are drivers for food insecurity. Additionally, food waste occurred on farms due to the inability to sell food to institutions that closed because of social distancing measures. Despite these barriers, food recovery organizations adapted to social distancing challenges and continued to divert surplus foods to feed communities. In this session, researchers and practitioners will share research and insight on the impact of COVID-19 in food pantries and the future of the emergency food system in a post-COVID-19 world.

5.4

5.5

Share actions, achievements and impacts of nutrition practice affected (positively/negatively) by Covid-19 pandemic. How can/must we react to a crisis? Strengthen the influence of the global academic community, and of DINE as key educators within our countries´ initiatives, as well as in global efforts, including in the right to food and health as key principles. Deliberate strategies and efforts to increase global professionals to the discussion of accountability around food security, food systems and nutrition practice. Sponsored by the Division of International Nutrition Education. 

8.7

8.8

Nutrition educators have quickly adapted to provide programming and services to children and families during the COVID-19 pandemic. Due to social distancing recommendations, educators have needed to pivot and innovate with virtual nutrition education strategies. This session presents an evidence-based framework to support the creation of highly engaging and effective virtual programming. A diverse panel of experts will share innovative and creative problem solving strategies, real life examples, and emerging best practices that can be applied within a wide variety of settings to engage children and families through virtual platforms. Sponsored by the Nutrition Education for Children Division. 

8.7

9.1

Infant nutrition, education, and support should integrate inclusive and culturally aware, breastfeeding care, and comprehensive services. Nutrition professionals should be prepared to provide evidence-based, non-judgmental counseling, and education to families that are unable or unwilling to breastfeed or utilize breastmilk. Amplified by recent humanitarian emergencies, participants will learn how to prevent, detect, and remedy homemade infant formula (HIF) usage. This program will explore the connection between HIF use, the US food system, food security, structural racism, health disparities, healthism, and misinformation.  Program speakers will share experiences from the field, advance policies, share current HIF research, and professional practice.

5.5

8.8

The session will cover a series of interrelated projects developed to improve diets within low income immigrant communities in New York City. More specifically, projects will cover: 1) the cultural adaptation process of a nutrition education curriculum for Chinese and Mexican immigrant families guided by implementation science; 2) innovative ground-truthing methods to enumerate the disproportionate impact of COVID-19 on the food retail environment (restaurants, food retail stores, fresh produce vendors); 3) the application of agent-based modeling to understand local community dietary behaviors; and 4) exploration of the inadequacy of current dietary recommendations for non-majority racial/ethnic and immigrant communities.

8.7

10.1