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Food Safety & Nutrition Media Packets
| Name | Rhonda Matthews | | Situation | Over the past few years, the Extension Service has been faced with drastic budget cuts and a reduced number of agents to conduct county programs. Our challenge is to continue to educate the public with unbiased, research-based information while becoming more focused. We have sought and are seeking new approaches to how we reach the public. | | Response | With this as an impetus, Food Safety and Nutrition lead agents began meeting on a quarterly basis to determine the shape of our future programming efforts. From this first meeting was born the idea to use mass media as a means of reaching larger segments of the population with a cohesive, state-wide food safety and nutrition message. This agent volunteered to chair a committee comprised of persons who represented all parts of the state. Our charge was to devise a plan for utilizing mass media outlets and supply them with an on-going, timely, and statewide message regarding food safety and nutrition. We accomplished our initial goal which was to deliver three months of media packets within 16 weeks time. The media packets were distributed to the lead agents at the April 2004 quarterly meeting. Each of the packets contained a “ready to use” news article for each week of the month, a local interest/bonus article, a kid’s corner article (targeted at elementary age youth), recipes that can be added to the articles if desired, and a template for any articles the agent’s might write themselves. The topics of the articles were chosen based on commodities in season, holidays, and nutritional significance. The committee developed a monthly calendar of article topics, collected or contributed article information, and then compiled the information into a single, focused article. Each weekly article was placed on a template to give a uniform appearance to the entire packet. CDs were distributed to make the information more accessible. The committee also made available to the agents a list of email addresses for all daily and weekly newspapers in the state as well as contact information for small and mid-market radio stations. I presented this information to the lead agents and explained to them the method in which it was to be used. Each agent understands that the intention of the committee is for mass media (radio and newspaper) in every county in the state to be offered the opportunity to use the articles. A goal has been set that at minimum, one of the articles will be used every month in every county in some fashion. | | Impact | This will move the lead agents toward a more unified effort of educating the public about food safety and nutrition. Quality mass media material has previously been available, but recently, there has been no coordination of subject matter across the state. It was a hit-and-miss operation with some counties covered thoroughly and some not covered at all. The CDs will continue to be developed and distributed on a quarterly basis. The committee will make improvements in the system based on feedback from the lead agents and regional directors. It is anticipated that this method of media outreach will continue indefinitely and it is our expectation that despite shrinking resources, this effort will actually increase the number of citizens reached with information that will improve their quality of life.
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Last update7/31/2007
This website is maintained by Bryan Smith.
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