Nourish NH: One Nudge at a Time

Over the course of the past year, UNH Extension has been busy trying out our latest programs to meet people where they are around food needs. Our food access work allows us to partner with many champions across the Granite State and we look forward to building on these successful relationships. Here are a few of the food access programs making an impact:

• Master Wellness Volunteer Food Access Pathway: Nine Master Wellness Volunteers graduated from this 6-week specialized training involving nutrition education, food demonstrations modeling and a fantastic presentation on Hunger in New Hampshire by partners Sarah Harpster and Jess Gorhan. We are already making plans for 2023 which will begin in February.
• CREATE Better Health: Our staff has been investigating how best to utilize this curriculum with NH food insecure families and older adults. CREATE emphasizes the flexible nature of recipes and cooking to accommodate dietary needs and preferences, cultural foods, available resources and more. It can be implemented face-to-face and virtually.
• Food Pantry Nudge Toolkit and CREATE On-line Staff Development: Another new resource created by UNH student and Extension Program Assistant Caroline Williams has been highlighted as part of our food pantry staff development pilot. Eight community partners including Master Wellness Volunteers and food pantry staff participated in this summer series utilizing the Utah State University CREATE On-line 8-week program and reviewed the eight-lesson nudge toolkit. Initial feedback encourages Extension to move forward with this effort to create healthier environments with our pantries.

For more information on our food access work please reach out to Heidi Barker, Extension Field Specialist.