09/01/2025
Hello Caroline County.
Today officially starts the 30 day countdown to the closing of Maryland SNAP-Ed. Our beloved program that has provided nutrition education to low income and at risk families is coming to an end. SNAP-Ed nation wide has been defunded with the passing of the One Big Beautiful Bill this past July.
It has been my honor and privilege to have worked with the residents of Caroline Country over the last nine years - four years working strictly with food pantries and the last five years at the Project Leader/Nutrition Educator. Over the last five years, I’ve build meaningful collaborations with Aaron’s Place, the Sho Go Mobile, Caroline County Public Schools and Food Services, Head Start, and with several daycare programs.
In the 2024-2025 school year our Edible ABC’s curriculum was taught in every CCPS Pre-K3 & 4, at the two Judy centers, MRDC Head Start in Federalsburg, and at two private Pre-K sites. In addition, our Read for Health curriculum was taught in 25 classrooms from four local elementary schools. In, additional to our youth programming, we taught monthly parent/child lessons from our Raising Food Explorers curriculum at our Judy Centers. For they last four years, SNAP-Ed has distributed free books to every elementary student in Caroline County covering topic like gardening, physical activity, cooking and eating together as a family, and reduced screen time. We distributed MyPlate plates, youth sized cooking utensils, and physical activity incentives last year as well. Last year, my programming budget was approximately $58,000. This budget was used to purchase food for classroom tastings, print newsletters, purchase incentives, buy supplies for making signs for food assistance sites, printing recipes, and many other things.
We are going to miss you - our students, our parents, fellow residents, and our colleagues. But we know that our  legacy will live on each time someone says”don’t yuck my yum” or “it’s not my favorite” or “I’ll try it again later” or “just two little bites”.
Farewell friends. Rememberto eat healthy and get lots of exercise.
Miss Rena and Miss Caitlin
