Wayne County Cooperative Extension FCS

For many years, the Extension and Community Association has been a contributor to the fair's success. One such example is the Senior Citizen Day, which wouldn't be possible without the efforts of event coordinator Edna Gambella, the North George ECA Club handling registration, the Wesley Mt. ECA Club providing volunteers, talented performers, Jimmy Ford as EMCEE, Wayne County ECA and Grantham Grange for door prizes, and, last but not least, UNC Health Wayne a generous sponsor. Thank you to everyone who made this event successful!

Team-building activities such us decorating a Christmas Tree at the Wayne Regional Agricultural Fair can help volunteers to develop trust, improve communication and collaboration, enhance skills, increase motivation and satisfaction.

Congratulations to our creative winners!

1st. North George ECA Club
2nd. STARS 4-H Club
3rd. Town and Country ECA Club

Thank you to the Wayne Regional Agricultural Fair for providing the best 10 days of fall and an educational space for community agencies.

Community Educational Exhibit winners:
1st. Literacy Connections
2nd. Partnership for Children
3rd. Health Department
4th. Public Library

Congratulations! Thank you for being so creative and sharing your expertise with our community.

Research shows that everyone engaged in intergenerational activities benefit from their involvement. Teenagers and young adults experience improved peer relationships and higher levels of self-esteem and self-confidence. Older adults report improved quality of life, cognitive health improvement and decreased social isolation.
Girl Power is a program sponsored by Wayne County Extension and Community Association in partnership with Cooperative Extension, 4-H, Girls Scouts NC Coastal Pines, local businesses and members in the community.
The 3 day program included information and hands-on activities about self-care, cooking, sewing, finances, goal setting and much more.

If you want to learn more about how to support this program next year contact Michelle Estrada at [email protected]

Thank you to all the people that helped this year and make the 2023 Girl Power Program a success!

The mission of the North Carolina Extension and Community Association Inc. is: To Strengthen Families and Communities through
̈ Leadership Development
̈ Community Action
̈ Educational support through research-based education from North Carolina State University and North Carolina A&T State University.

This year Wayne County Extension and Community Association members practiced community action by donating 25 baskets to the teachers of Grantham Elementary School.

“If you can read this, thank a teacher.”

Restaurant Challenge Day 4

A study from New Zealand reinforces findings from previous research: Teens who are able to cook a meal easily and who actually prepare meals more frequently:
•eat more fruits and vegetables
•eat less fast food
•drink fewer soft drinks
•share more meals with their family

Thank you volunteers, staff, parents, and family members for supporting our children during the Restaurant Challenge. Both teams did a great job!

Restaurant Challenge Day 3

Organizational skills allow children to follow instructions, manage their time, set goals, prioritize tasks and create action plans.

Participants planned menus, created a shopping list, and shopped with a budget.

Restaurant Challenge Day 2

Experiential Learning is the process of learning by doing. By engaging youth in hands-on experiences and reflection, they are better able to connect what they learned to real-world situations.

Thank you Pizza Inn and Los Fogones for sharing your knowledge and passion for food with our 4-H Summer Camp participants.

Restaurant Challenge Day 1:

By exposing children to farming, they can learn valuable lessons about where their food comes from, the benefits of eating fresh and healthy produce, and how to care for animals and the environment.

Thank you Ms. Pam from Elroy Farms Farm Market for sharing your knowledge and love about Local Foods.

Children especially enjoy learning with their parents. Cooking as a family helps parents learn to serve healthy nutritious meals, fosters positive parent-child interactions, and improves the style in which the children are fed. This in turn, translates into raising children who are nutritionally and developmentally healthy (Spears, 2000).

Farm to Early Care and Education (Farm to ECE) enhances the health and education of young children by developing systems and experiential learning that connect children and their families with local food and farms.

Today we visited four Head Start Centers to observe how teachers, children, and families are learning how to grow and eat local foods.

It has been a pleasure to collaborate with WAGES, Partnership for Children of Wayne County, CEFS, and NC Cooperative Extension in this project.

I can’t wait to see more childcare centers getting involved with Farm to ECE!

Cooking engages the five senses through hands-on experiences: seeing, touching, hearing, smelling and tasting.
Today we partnered with the Wayne County Public Library! We read books about fruits and vegetables, and we made Fiesta Salsa.

Learning about different cultural aspects offers new experiences for children. Food helps to connect people from different backgrounds. Food tells a story!

Yesterday children shared their food stories and learned about Italy during the Mamma Mía Watch Me Cook 4-H Summer Camp. It was fun and delicious!

Reading recipes, writing and following a shopping list, and finding ingredients at the store are a few examples on how cooking activities can help develop children’s literacy skills.

Today our little chefs had a chance to practice their literacy skills during the Tasty Reads, Yummy Treats 4-H Summer Camp

Thank you to our Farmers Market Manager, vendors, and customers for supporting our amazing volunteers that manage the Farmers Market Donation Station. Because of this team effort, many families in Wayne County are getting fresh produce to be able to serve healthier meals!

Come and join us at the Wayne County Library in Goldsboro from 10 AM - 12 PM.

Do you like food challenges and competition?
For more information go to:
https://wayne.ces.ncsu.edu/wp-content/uploads/2023/05/day-camps-2023.pdf?fwd=no

Take Control is an 8 session chronic disease prevention program that provides strategies to help adults manage their health. It informs, empowers, and motivates participants to change their eating and physical activity patterns.

Thank you Wayne County's Services on Aging for partnering with Wayne County Cooperative Extension. We enjoyed sharing with our participants recipes, cooking demos, and nutrition information.

Steps to Health, NCSU SNAP-Ed

Research has found that volunteering among adults, age 60 and over, provided benefits to physical and mental health. Research also has shown that volunteering leads to lower rates of depression and anxiety, especially for people 65 and older.

Wayne County Extension and Community Association members are amazing volunteers. They work so hard, but today we decided to have fun while learning historical facts about Wilmington, NC!

People’s food choices are influenced by their cooking skills. Therefore, promotion of cooking skills should be part of prevention strategies. Cooking classes provide a great opportunity to raise awareness of fresh foods, food ingredients, and health-promoting diets.

This week Wayne County Cooperative Extension provided a cooking class for the Gamma Gamma Sorority and we had so much fun!

The evidence is clear—physical activity can make you feel better, function better, and sleep better. Being physically active also fosters normal growth and development, improves overall health, and can reduce the risk of various chronic diseases.

Thank you Partnership for Children of Wayne County for hosting the Touch a Truck event and giving us the opportunity to promote healthy living through our Steps to Health and EFNEP Programs.

With Summer just around the corner and family gathers it is important to protect the people that we love by learning how to prepare and keep our food safe.

No one likes to waste food, but sometimes it just seems inevitable that ingredients go bad before you get a chance to use them or leftovers start looking like a whole other meal. Luckily, the Wayne County Public Library has an upcoming program that can help! Next week, Monday, May 10, Michelle Estrada from the North Carolina Cooperative Extension will be at the library to teach people how to safely store and keep food in their home.

Farm Fest is today!

TODAY IS THE DAY!!! We Dig It! Farm Fest at the Farm Credit Farmers Market! Come out for food, music, games, bounce houses, farm animals, hayrides, and the farmers market! This is a free event, open to all. It’s going to be amazing!!

Fast food is energy dense and nutrient poor compared to food prepared at home, and portion sizes have been increasing over the past 50 years.

Our 30 Minute Meals Cooking Demo was a wonderful way to show Wayne County Extension and Community Association members easy, quick, and healthy fast foods that can be prepared at home.

Faithful Families Thriving Communities promotes healthy eating and physical activity in communities of faith. Faithful Families’ program approach includes small group sessions and policy and environmental changes at the faith community level to promote health for individuals, families, and the local community.

Thank you Spring Hill Original Freewill Baptist Church for sponsoring this wonderful program and Hope Center Ministries for your participation.

A study from New Zealand reinforces findings from previous research: Teens who are able to cook a meal easily and who actually prepare meals more frequently:
eat more fruits and vegetables
eat less fast food
drink fewer soft drinks
share more meals with their family

We had a great time teaching Ignite Culture and Healthy Living at the National Conference Ignite by 4-H!

Do you want to learn more about eating healthy while you spend time with other seniors? Register today with Maryann George at (919)731-1500

Enter NC Pickle Festival’s Pickle Recipe Contest for a chance to win a year's supply of Mt. Olive Pickles!
The contest deadline is March 24, so get your creative juices going! Click here to learn more:
https://go.ncsu.edu/ncpicklerecipecontest

Farm to Early Care and Education (Farm to ECE) enhances the health and education of young children by developing systems and experiential learning that connect children and their families with local food and farms. It includes any type of activities in ECE environments that incorporate local foods through meals and snacks, taste tests, lessons, farmer visits, cooking, growing food, and/or community and parent involvement.

Thank you to all our presenters, Extension Master Gardener Volunteers, Extension Master Food Volunteers, Early Childhood Professionals, Partnership for Children of Wayne County, and WAGES for working with Cooperative Extension to help us to promote local foods and healthy eating in our community.

2023 Farm to ECE Extension Regional Training.

Cooking encourages children's thinking, problem-solving, and creativity. It also allows children the opportunity to use the knowledge they have and apply it by counting, measuring, following a sequence, following directions, and cause and effect.

Cooking with Parents as Teachers families, program funded by the Partnership for Children of Wayne County!

Thank you Wayne County ECA members for your service!

Why Farm to Early Care and Education?

🍓 Supports development of healthy food patterns
🥕 Early obesity prevention.
🥦 Better nutrition which is critical for development.
🍊Children rely on caregivers for healthy food and active environment.
🌽 Hands-on activities can increase children’s willingness to try healthy foods.
🥑 Supports success local farmers and economies.
🍉 Young children behaviors can change family behaviors.

To register:

https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSdEcM2pQ0kOQ--LvJUQBBaD22fESoUGuKMYVs90I0xXpMWe5Q/viewform

Collaboration leads to more innovation, efficient processes, increased success, and improved communication. Through listening to and learning from team members, volunteers can help each other reach the association’s goals.
Wayne County Extension and Community Association had so much fun at their Tea Party while planning and making decisions for 2023.
Thank you Maryann George for organizing this beautiful event.

This year Wayne County Extension and Community Association facilitated the packing of Operation Christmas Child shoebox gifts. ECA members had a lot of fun shopping, decorating, and filling the boxes.
ECA completed 59 boxes and provided some funds for shipping. The total cost for this project was almost $1000. We know that this activity impacts the child who receives the box and the whole community.

Mission: To provide Christmas gifts for 52 children. Most of them Middle and High School students.
Time frame: Nine days.

Newcomer programs are programs designed for recent immigrants at the secondary school level who have little or no English proficiency, and limited or no formal education in their native countries. The goals of newcomer programs are mainly to help kids develop linguistic survival skills and start adapting to the new culture.

A few days ago the Wayne County Latino Council, Wayne County Extension and Community Association, Wayne County Cooperative Extension staff, and other members in our community became aware of the needs of the participants of the Wayne County Public Schools Newcomer Program.

The main goal was to provide winter clothes and a gift that could make these children first Christmas in the United States an unforgettable experience.

Thank you so much for your monetary donations, for wrapping hundreds of presents, for shopping, for loading the vans, and delivering gifts.

When we delivered the gifts we couldn’t understand what some of the children were saying but the smiles on their faces, and the hugs that we received were the best gift of Christmas.

Participation in volunteer and civic opportunities from an early age instills empathy, inspires a sense of citizenship, and helps youth find pathways to meaningful education and work.

Wayne County Extension and Community Association collected 770 lbs. of non-perishable food and put together 36 food baskets for families in need.

This activity provided an opportunity for two wonderful youth volunteers to help us to distribute the baskets.

Thank you everyone for your donations and hard work!

Sweet Healthy Treats to please the family!

Cooking With Michelle - Four Delightful Desserts

The ECA Christmas Bazaar is not done yet! Come shop and enjoy our local vendors until 4 PM at the Maxwell Center!

The ECA Christmas Bazaar starts in less than an hour! Come shop for incredible gifts for this holiday season! 10-4 at the Maxwell Center!

This holiday season shop local and help your community by bringing non-perishable foods to the 2022 Christmas Bazaar!