The Expanded Food and Nutrition Education Program (EFNEP) is a free nutrition education program for limited resource families that currently operates in all 50 states and in American Samoa, Guam, Micronesia, Northern Marianas, Puerto Rico, and the Virgin Islands.
EFNEP assists limited-resource audiences in acquiring the knowledge, skills, attitudes, and changed behavior necessary for nutritionally sound diets, and to contribute to their personal development and improvement of the family diet and nutritional well-being.
EFNEP educators are members of the community who provide services to participants and teach them how to improve nutrition, health and well-being.
Through a series of hands-on and fun lessons, EFNEP participants learn about:
o Improved diets and nutritional welfare for the whole family.
o Increased knowledge of the essentials of human nutrition.
o Increased ability to select and buy food that satisfies nutritional needs.
o Improved practices in food production, preparation, storage, safety, and sanitation.
o Increased ability to manage food budgets and related resources such as food stamps.
o Improved physical activity behaviors.
At the University of District of Columbia, EFNEP is a part of The Center for Nutrition, Diet, and Health (CNDH), which offers high-quality, research-based community outreach programs that combat systemic urban nutrition and health issues. EFNEP seeks to engage citizens in collaborative efforts to improve community health, obesity prevention, the quality of life, and economic opportunity for the District of Columbia, the nation, and the world (UDC).
In response to the increasing awareness of poverty in the United States and the link between poverty and malnutrition, EFNEP was established in 1968 by the U.S. Department of Agriculture as a pilot project. Pilot studies in several states helped identify effective approaches for contacting at-risk families and teaching and maintaining education programs for people living in poverty.
From its inception, the intent of EFNEP was to train “paraprofessional aides” to reach the nation’s poorest families living in rural and low income areas and teach them the knowledge, skills, attitudes, and behaviors necessary for their personal and nutritional well-being.
EFNEP continues to evolve over time to stay current and relevant to the audience it serves. It also meets the legislative requirements of using the peer educator model to teach low-income families.
USDA: The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) leads the Federal anti-hunger effort with the Food Stamp, School Lunch, School Breakfast, and the WIC Programs.
NIFA: The National Institute of Food and Agriculture (NIFA) is an agency within the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), part of the executive branch of the Federal Government. Congress created NIFA through the Food, Conservation, and Energy Act of 2008. NIFA replaced the former Cooperative State Research, Education, and Extension Service (CSREES), which had been in existence since 1994.
National EFNEP: The CSREES’ Expanded Food and Nutrition Education Program (EFNEP) is a unique program that currently operates in all 50 states and in American Samoa, Guam, Micronesia, Northern Marianas, Puerto Rico, and the Virgin Islands. It is designed to assist limited-resource audiences in acquiring the knowledge, skills, attitudes, and changed behavior necessary for nutritionally sound diets, and to contribute to their personal development and the improvement of the total family diet and nutritional well-being.
