Meet
Lancaster’s
New
Extension
Home
Economist
LOU ANN GOOD
Lancaster Farming Staff
LANCASTER (Lancaster Co.)
—“How do I remove coffee stains
from a tablecloth?”
“How do I get the most efficient
use from my freezer?”
These were questions callers
posed to Nancy Wiker during her
first day on the job as the newly
appointed home economist for
Penn State Cooperative Extension
at the Lancaster County office.
“I’m really excited about this
job. It’s been my long-term goal
for years and this is just the right
timing for me,” Wiker said.
She left behind her 24-year
tenure as a teacher of home
economic related courses at the
county’s Pequea Valley High
School to assume her new
position.
The hours of a teaching job
seemed mote conducive to raising
a family, but now that she and her
husband Bob’s children, Dana, 7;
Justin, 12; and Ross, 19, are older,
Wiker considers the job opening as
the right timing lor her.
Wiker grew up in Susquehanna
County. “My parents and grandpa
rents were very family oriented
and served as healthy role models
to me,” Wiker said of the cooking
and sewing skills she acquired dur
ing her growing up years.
Their influence caused her to
study individual and family studies
at Penn State and attain a teaching
certificate and later a master’s of
education degree.
Over the yean, Wiker has parti
cipated in the change of focus in
home economic courses mandated
for high school students.
“I’ve taught it all,” Wiker said
of the food, clothing, and textile
emphasis that has now switched to
home management, housing, con
sumerism, and child development
courses.
Wiker believes her background
has provided her with a multi
faceted background for the many
Wiker plans to help people see how to fit healthy eating
Into everyday lifestyles by offering food and nutrition prog
rams at the Farm and Home Center.
Nancy Wiker Is the newly-appointed home economist for
Lancaster County’s Penn State Cooperative Extension.
Alter teaching home economic-related courses for 24 years
at Pequea Valley High School, Wiker has achieved her long
standing goal to become associated with extension
services.
responsibilities she faces in her job
as the county home economist
“Having lived in the county for
25 years, I already have many
established contacts through my
work with school field trips and
guest speakers,” she said.
As a former summer assistant in
the Susquehanna County Exten
sion office, Wiker had a good
grasp on the many services that the
extension provides, but even she is
surprised by the scope of its ser
vices now that she is actually in a
full-time position with the
extension.
“The extension is one of the best
kept secrets.” she said of the publ
ic’s unfamiliarity with all the ser
vices offered.
She is in the process of deter
mining how to best make the
extension’s resources known to the
community and serve its needs.
While her exact program is not
in place at this time, Wiker forsees
a food and nutrition focus. She
said, “I plan to help people see how
to fit healthy eating into everyday
lifestyles.”
This will include offering work
shops to all economical levels.
Wiker is not alone in determin
ing the services that should be
offered to the community. In addi
tion to her mentor, Lettie Schadler,
extension director for Lebanon
County, Wiker will be guided by
an advisory council made up of
about 20 persons, most who hold
office on other community service
boards.
Wiker will be participating in
writing the column “Family Living
Focus,” which appears in this pap
er, and in local radio programing
related to consumerism.
Regarding all those questions
that callers pose, Wiker said that if
she doesn’t know the answers, she
has plenty of resources, hi addition
to reference bodes and electronic
sources, Wiker has direct access to
Penn State personnel.
“If I don’t know the answer
immediately. I promise to find out
and call back," Wikcr said.
Unlike her job as a schoolteach
er, Wiker said it will be more diffi
cult to determine how clients use
the information the extension
offers. She won’t see many of the
people helped through extension
services on $ regular basis. But,
she knows that the people she
teaches will attend workshops and
ask for help because they want it
rather than being required to
participate.
“The change in career is excit
ing to me. I had used extension
resources before and now to
become part of serving the com
munity is a wonderful opportuni
ty,” she said.
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