— Lancaster Farming. Saturday. April 23. 1977
100
ENEP teaches nutrition to the needy
By JOANNE SPAHR
LANCASTER, Pa. - For a
farmer who can proudly say,
“I, alone, feed 56 people,” it
is hard to believe that some
individuals around him don’t
have enough to eat, or don’t
know what goes into a
nutritious meal. But, un
fortunately, it’s true-even in
Lancaster County, the
garden spot of the world. In
this county, alone, 5288
families (at the time of the
1970 census) earned incomes
below the poverty level. At
6.5 per cent of all county
families, Lancaster was only
1.4 per cent below the
national average (which
includes all the poverty
pockets in all the major
cities in the United States).
And, in fact, 70.1 per cent
of all poverty stricken people
live outside of the city of
Lancaster.
“Many, many people don’t
realize the problem, here,”
states Doris Thomas,
Lancaster County Extension
home economist. She,
however, was rudely
awakened to the incidence of
poverty in the county in 1971
when Lancaster became
part of the Expanded
Nutrition Education
Program (ENEP) which she
heads.
ENEP is a combination of
educational, social, and
4
Doris Thomas (standing) and Jan Escott look
over plans for {his year’s ENEP youth program.
counselling services aimed
at an audience of low income
people. The goal of those
involved with file program is
to try to educate the
unknowing as to how their
diet affects them and how
improve it.
The program is funded by
the USDA through the land
grant universities (such as
Penn State) which ad-
minister it. So far, ap
proximately 58 counties are
taking part in the service.
“Those that don’t usually
lack the staff,” states Mrs.
Thomas.
Originally, in 1969 when
the program was first im
plemented, it was aimed
only at adults. In 1970, a
youth phase was added to
reinforce what the mother in
the family unit was taught,
and a year later, Lancaster
County picked up the
program. Families are
referred by social services,
agencies, and schools, etc.
Three weeks ago, Jan
Escott, from Bethlehem,
took over the job of Lan
caster County nutrition
assistant, a position that had
been vacated several months
earlier. Miss Escott, who is a
graduate of Penn State
University with a bachelor of
science degree in foods and
nutrition, is primarily
responsible for youth ac
tivities.
“My job is to coordinate
the youth program and
provide materials and
training for the leaders,” she
explains.
Basically, she works with
the youth through 4-H
nutrition dubs, organized
according to location around
the county. While they are
referred to as 4-H dubs, they
do have some unique dif
ferences that set them apart
from the 4-H program.
Usually, the children come
from 'families on ENEP,
although other eager and
enthusiastic children are not
turned away. And, in every
instance, the dub has a core
or nucleus of nutrition
The most accurate
fertilizer spreader
you can buy
The Vicon Spreader uses an ex
clusive fast-action spout moving
back and forth at 540 times per
minute to give even, rectangular
coverage instead of the usual
circular pattern.
That means increased profit be
cause you get uniform fertilizer
coverage, resulting in better stands and higher yields.
Give the Vicon fertilizer spreader a try. It costs no
more than others. But it's better.
ABRACZINSKAS FARM EQUIPMENT,
i]o)
P. L. ROHRER & BRO„ INC.
SMOKETOWN, PA
education which sometimes
branches off into sewing,
grooming, or other topics the
children want to leant about.
“In general, we teach
them the Basic Four food
groups,” says Miss Escott.
“I was surprised to learn
how many pimple don’t know
what a balanced meal is,”
she remarked.
The dubs will be
organizing in the middle of
May, and the nutrition aides
will start their training
sessions about then.
Nutrition ~ aides are
paraprofessional women
We also sell Vi-Con rakes and power harrows (in stock).
NO-TILL HELPS
STOP EROSION.
Planting directly into ground cover, stubble
or other residue of a preceding crop means
minimum soil disturbance and a reduction
in both water and wind erosion. It’s a prime
benefit of no-till, a farming method substi
tuting Ortho Paraquat CL and other chem
icals for mechanical tillage.
* Ortho
Chevron Chemical Company
In Stock:
PS 400 PS SOOT
PS 500 PS 600 S
R.D.No. 1
Catawissa, Penna.
Ph: 717-356-7409
(south on Route 42)
PH, 717-299-2571
from the community who are
trained by the staff at the
Extension service to help the
people in the communities,
“Research found, almost
from fiie very- beginning,
that those people on the
program were much more
willing to learn from the
aides than from others,”
says Mrs. Thomas. So, these
paraprofessiocals became
part of the program. Lan
caster County now has 12,
supervised by TOlie Gibson,
usually, the clubs start when
IContinoad on Pap 117]
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TETS O*THO ChCVWON AND CHCVWONOtHCT-WCC US XTOfT|
INC.