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Posted by: Susan L. Johnson, PhD on Monday December 14, 2020 The closure of US public schools during the COVID-19 public health emergency has affected up to 55 million students, 13.6% of whom come from food insecure households.1,2 In the study reported by McLoughlin et al., they remind us of the breadth of services that schools offer to children and families. 3 Not only do schools seek to educate and provide opportunities for cognitive and social-emotional growth, they also support physical growth and health, providing nutritional stability and food se (...)

Posted by: Ellen Schuster, MS on Wednesday December 2, 2020 Cooking fatigue‘ has set in...many are tired of cooking at home, cooking for no one/themselves/family. A survey of 2,000 Americans conducted for SunBasket found that the average respondent had prepared the same dish 28 times since the pandemic began. The survey identified some familiar sources of cooking fatigue - time, prep work needed, clean-up and planning. A program associate with Rutgers Cooperative Extension, Warren County suggests getting help from others especially with clean-up (...)

Posted by: Karen Chapman-Novakofski, PhD, RDN on Monday November 9, 2020 Family meals have changed quite a bit over the past 6 or 8 months. We may be eating at home more with immediate family or eating alone more often because we aren’t getting to restaurants. We may be trying more new recipes because of boredom or eating more frozen meals because of fatigue and stress. Looking back over the past year of meal-related articles brought some interesting highlights. A systematic review published in May concerning the relation between family meal frequency and dietar (...)

Posted by: Pam Koch, EdD, RD on Monday November 9, 2020 UPSTREAM NUTRITION EDUCATION In my 35 years as a nutrition educator, I am often too busy doing the proverbial, “pulling drowning people out of the river to go upstream and stop people from getting in.” Yet, I had an opportunity to do upstream nutrition education with a fifth-grade class. It started during a pre-intervention survey about vegetables. A student asked, “can I write you a message?” The message was “Kids my age DO NOT [sic] eat vegetables.” In another lesson aimed (...)

Posted by: Ellen Schuster, MS on Thursday November 5, 2020 With the holidays coming maybe there’s more time to try new recipes using food in new ways. Consider using dessert hummus, butternut squash, sweet potatoes and more in new and interesting ways. Enjoy! For the holidays... Use dessert hummus: Pumpkin pie parfaits w/pudding, pumpkin pie spice hummus, whipped cream and fruit (consider omitting the caramel sauce); Dark chocolate hummus trifle (consider a lighter cake like angel food cake instead of the brownies); Or frost cup (...)

Posted by: Ellen Schuster, MS on Monday October 19, 2020 Call them community fridges, free food fridges or ‘freedges,’ refrigerators set up in community locations for people to share food are gaining traction across the U.S. in states such as NY, CA, TN, FL, LA, and TX. This is due, in part, to the pandemic but the refrigerators were flourishing prior to the pandemic. Community refrigerators began overseas and in 2017 they were supported by a U.K. foundation, Hubbub Foundation in the U.K., Canada, Australia, India, Germany and Israel. Pro (...)

Posted by: Abiodun T. Atoloye, Serah Theuri W, Constance Gewa and Euince Bonsi on Wednesday October 14, 2020 World Food Day is an international day celebrated every year worldwide to honor the founding of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations. Other organizations also mark the day by highlighting issues surrounding food security. The Division of International Nutrition Education (DINE) recognizes this day through programs and activities to educate individuals on how they can change simple habits to make a difference in the world. Due to the global COVID-19 pandemic, World Food Day (...)

Posted by: Karen Chapman-Novakofski, PhD, RDN on Monday October 12, 2020 In JNEB, the Discussion section should compare and contrast the results of the research with other published studies. The reason for this is to provide the readers with an idea of the external validity of the study. That is, can results be generalized to other populations, settings, times? Is the sample representative of a larger whole? External validity is enhanced with randomization, which in turn heightens the representativeness of the sample. Replication also increases external validity.1 (...)

Posted by: Dwanna McKay, Stephany Parker and Sara Mata on Monday October 12, 2020 Nutrition and health professionals often discuss, research, and write about social determinants of health. We acknowledge health disparities among marginalized populations and inequitable access to foods, places, and spaces for healthful lifestyles. However, at what point do we acknowledge how settler colonialism promulgates inequitable access to healthful lifestyles, as well as the complexities regarding the damaging sociohistorical and contemporary contexts of policy, poverty, historical traum (...)

Posted by: Ellen Schuster, MS on Monday October 5, 2020 Two Coronavirus-related topics...First, CDC guidelines for holidays including Halloween and other food-related guidelines released during September 2020. Second, Ideas/resources for celebrating  the Active School campaign: Bring PE to Your Family Week (in lieu of Take Your Parent to PE Week) - Oct. 19 - 23, 2020. CDC Coronavirus Halloween/holiday & other food-related guidelines... CDC guidelines for holiday celebrations (including Halloween) updated 9/21/2020 helps you assess you (...)