Nutrition and Health

• How long should I boil an egg?
• How does unit pricing help me save money?
• Is my baby getting enough milk?
• Can I use Food Stamps to buy vegetable seeds for my garden?

These are questions that the Food and Nutrition Education in Communities program addresses every day. Food and Nutrition Education in Communities teaches nutrition related skills through a vast array of approaches.

If you are a young mother struggling to feed your family nutritiously in a world of junk food, we can help you learn to cook using basic, healthy ingredients. You can learn to serve good, healthy food your family will enjoy - and to do it on a budget.

If you recieve Food Stamps or other public assistance and struggle to make ends meet, we can help you budget your resources and make sound financial decisions to ensure you can feed yourself and your family without running out of food at the end of the month.

Because money for food is not always available and families sometimes do not have enough healthy, acceptable food, Cornell Cooperative Extension of Jefferson County is dedicated to the idea of Community Food Security. Visit our community gardens and youth gardens; call us to see if your school supports the Farm to School program; or visit the Monday Neighborhood Farmers’ Market in front of the Extension offices during the summer. Call our office if want to volunteer to make our community more food secure.

Enjoy gardening? Families enrolled

in our program are encouraged to garden as a way to become more self-sufficient. Cornell Cooperative Extension of Jefferson County has a rototiller and will travel to your home. From seed to soup you can learn the secrets of making food grow from your back yard to your pantry.

Without dispute, healthy mother's milk is best for baby. But as natural as breastfeeding is, nursing your baby does not always come naturally. To help moms make breastfeeding a successful experience the In-home Breastfeeding Support program has trained educators who will visit moms in their homes to provide needed support, education and encouragement that makes feeding your baby a nurturing time.

Jefferson County residents are invited to read our weekly column in the Keeping Up section of the Watertown Times Newspaper. You can call our office to have your food and nutrition questions answered or to have research based information mailed to you.