42
—Lancaster Farming, Saturday, July 22,1978
Gladys Mae
Brubaker
is someone
who cares
By SUSAN KAUFFMAN
Staff Writer
LANCASTER - It is not very often that one hears
someone say, “I just love my job! I really do. I enjoy it so
much that I feel fortunate to have it! ” But those are the
sentiments of Gladys Mae Brubaker, nutrition aide for the
Lancaster County Expanded Foods and Nutrition
Education Program (EFNEP).
Her obvious interest in her job and her several years’
experience in this career have undoubtedly gone into her
recent election as director for the Capital Region of the
Pennsylvania Extension Para Professional Association.
July 1 was the official beginning for Mrs. Brubaker’s new
responsibilities of representing the nutrition aides in nine
local counties on a state-wide level.
During the two-year term as director, Mrs. Brubaker
will carry to the state association the suggestions and
grievances of her area, collect and pay dues for the
various counties under her charge, help plan the annual
state association meeting, and keep the county aides
informed of association actions.
Although the record keeping and correspondence will -
add to her present workload as an aide m Lancaster
County, Gladys looks forward to this new challenge to help
continue the program - a very worthwhile one in her eyes.
At the urging of her director, Mrs. Doris Thomas, Lan
caster County extension home economist, Mrs. Brubaker
ran for office and was elected in June. Mrs. Brubaker
feels she can count on Mrs. Thomas and her nutrition aide
supervisor, Tillie Gibson, to assist her with her new duties
as they have done in the past with her job as an aide. Mrs.
Brubaker values highly the cooperation between ad
ministrators and aides she has experienced during the six
years she has worked in EFNEP.
EFNEP, a part of the Cooperative Extension Service of
The Pennsylvania State University, has as its primary
goal nutrition and money management education for
families with limited resources. Two years after the
national program was instituted, EFNEP was begun in
Lancaster County by Penn State in 1971. One year later,
Mrs. Brubaker began her work in the southern end of
Lancaster County.
Instructors in EFNEP are called nutrition aides. Before
they start to work with families on a one to one basis, the
aides are trained during a three-week program at the
Farm and Home Center. Mrs. Thomas and Mrs. Gibson
Mrs. Barbara Merrick, Noble Road, Kirkwood, gets a helping hand from Mrs Brubaker in making
a raisin cake.
Mrs. Gladys Mae Brubaker, nutrition aide; Doris
Thomas, program director; and Tillie Gibson,
nutrition aide supervisor, took over a list of Mrs.
direct the program and instruct the prospective aides in
nutrition, money management, and the operation of the
nutrition aide program.
Presently there are 12 nutrition aides working m
Lancaster County. Six are funded through Penn State.
Four are paid through the federal Comprehensive Em
ployment and Training Act (CETA) and two are paid
through the Office of Aging, Title 9.
Families in need of nutritional advice are referred to
the Lancaster Comity Extension Service by various
agencies throughout the city and county. Mothers with
small children are a primary concern. These families are
then contacted by a nutrition aide to explain the program,
and if they are interested in gaining some information on
nutrition, they participate m the program on a one to one
basis.
Mrs. Brubaker explained that she may make one or two
initial contacts within a few weeks’ time to determine if
the family wishes to take part in the purely educational
program. Once the mother of the household decides to
avail herself of the program’s information and the aide’s
support, the aide then begins weekly visits to the home
and develops a program geared to the immediate needs of
that home. Mrs. Brubaker explained that many special
problems may need particular attention such as obesity,
diabetes, blindness or very limited funds, to name a few.
With the assistance o£ the director and the aide
supervisor, the aides gather as many applicable types of
educational materials as are available. Filmstrips, books,
pamphlets, menus, recipes, newsletters, charts, and tapes
all go into the educational program.
At the first the aide may visit the home once a week.
Depending on the rate of progress, the schedule will shift
to a visit every two weeks and then once a month. After
some progress has taken place the mothers are en
couraged to form groups for more support and in
struction. Eventually, some of the mothers will take over
the instruction themselves in 4-H youth nutrition clubs
under the supervision of a nutrition aide.
The information-centered program assists
homemakers in gaming the necessary knowledge to help
Brubaker’s new duties as aide director for the
Pennsylvania Para Professional Association. -
themsleves improve their family’s eating habits and
health ahd~lo guide-’in better-money management.
Presently there are 1000 families cooperating in tHe
program in Lancaster County with a prospective total of
600 youth involved in Summer 4-H nutrition clubs. In
addition to those families already in the program, the
extension office receives 75 to 100 additional names each
month.
Mrs. Brubaker told Lancaster Fanning that her present
case load is 70 families. Her area includes the southern
end of the county from Columbia to Christiana and as far
south as the Maryland line.
Although she has a large geographic territory to cover
and a many families to become involved with on a one to
one basis, Mrs. Brubaker thoroughly enjoys her work.
“I am glad I have this job and I really enjoy it so much.”
“It is a challenge to find ways to help each family,” she
says. “Each family has a special need and I try to meet'ifl
and find a way to help,” she said. "
“We work with'the mother, mostly, because if she eats
well then her family will probably eat well, too, since she
is the one who prepares the food.* In order to get the
mother to see where her diet might be missing some of the
four basic food groups, I ask her to recall everythingJshe
ate in the last 24 hours. I do this at the beginning and every
six months to see what progress has been made. ’ ’
Mrs. Brubaker explained that she works with most
families for a two year period before they graduate or
join a group program. The mothers especially delight in
receiving recipes and finding new ways to prepare foods.
Occasionally, the aide will go along with a mother to the
grocery store to assist her in shopping wisely for food
value for the money spent and for nutritionally sound
menus.
When working closely with people in their homes, Mrs.
Brubaker pointed out there is obviously a great deal more
than the instruction in nutrition facts and money
management that goes mto the success of the program.
She found over the last six years that the immediate
problems of the household have to be overcome, and she,
as an aide, has to gam the confidence and trust of the
families before she can communicate with them
meaningfully.
“Many tunes I have had calls late at night from a
mother who had to have someone to talk to about
something that was really bothering her. I hope I can help
out then, too,” she added. (
Having lived m southern Lancaster County all her life
und having reared four children of her own, Mrs.
Brubaker has had experience m family living and the
locality in which she works. She credits much of her
happiness and success m this job, however, to her faith.
“I think this job was what God had m mind for rrxe to do
after my children were grown. My church has been very
good for me and this job. The families are so appreciative
of the help I can give them and I am thankful that I can
help them.”
“The theme of EFNEP is ‘Someone who cares,” Mrs.
Brubaker pomted out.
“It was hard for me to go back to school to start this job,
but as I have often told my children, ‘lf a job is worth
domg, it is worth domg it the best way you can and any job
that is worthwhile will require a lot of hard work.’ I had to
remind myself of that many times as I became
discouraged from tune to time with the classes I took,”
Mrs. Brubaker recalled.
In addition to meeting with homemakers in their homes,
Mrs Brubaker also works with a 4-H club in the southern
end of the county, teaches nutrition at the Solanco School
District in the Senior High Special Educaton class and a
dime at Lionville once a month.
Mrs. Brubaker has always been a busy person with four
children, serving for 20 years as a Sunday School teacherj
singing in the choir and leading a Good News Club at the 1
New Providence Church of God. And now she feels for
tunate to be very busy with EFNEP. Gladys Mae
Brubaker is definitely “someone who cares.”