Regional Nutrition Education and Obesity Prevention Centers of Excellence What Can They Do For You?

Background Collaboration between FNS and NIFA Supports a long standing commitment to nutrition education for low-income populations Awarded Fall 2014

RNECE Charge Strengthen the evidence base – Identify and confirm what works with diverse groups Evaluate long-term effectiveness of interventions Identify new research opportunities, collaborations and synergy Focus on regionally identified needs

National Coordinating Center University of Kentucky

Regional Centers of Excellence North Central – Purdue University Northeast – Cornell University Southern – University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill Western – Colorado State University

NCC: National Coordination Center Coordinate communication Conduct regional center reviews Aggregate and disseminate research findings Identify common themes and results Synthesize and report national data

Regional Centers

RNECE-West (W) 13 states and 4 territories 8 time zones Urban, rural and island communities Largest of the four NIFA regions 3 FNS regions – West, Mountain Plains, Southwest

RNECE-W Research Long-term follow-up evaluation of direct education Food pantry environmental assessment tool Develop environmental support activities for use in conjunction with direct education

RNECE-W Sub-awards Evaluation of a low cost, low burden technology for evaluating EFNEP and SNAP-Ed effectiveness – Utah State University; University of Utah Sugar Sweetened Beverage Intake among EFNEP Participants – University of Alaska Fairbanks

RNECE-W Sub-awards YPAR: Youth Participatory Action Research – Public Health Institute, California

RNECE - North Central (NC) Focus on unique challenges of rural areas 2 FNS regions: – Mountain Plains – Midwest

RNECE-NC Affiliate Program Unique to this region Membership program Facilitate networking for research and program implementation

RNECE-NC Sub-awards Eat Smart in Parks: Youth Mapping and Photovoice to Inform Healthy Food Environments – University of Missouri Evaluating a Multi-Modal Community Nutrition Education Model within SNAP-Ed and EFNEP – University of Illinois Extension, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

RNECE-South (S) Prevalence of rural communities Centrality of the church Distinctive cooking traditions and diets High obesity rates 13 states, 2 territories 3 FNS regions: Southwest, Southeast, Mid-Atlantic

RNECE-S Research Social Media Educational Activities Pilot Study – NC State University & Case Western University PSE Implementation & Evaluation Barriers Assessment Rural Healthy Retail Initiative – UNC Chapel Hill & Duke University

RNECE-S Sub-awards Evaluation of Online Nutrition Education eLearning Program Tailored to SNAP-Ed Eligible Adult Georgians – University of Georgia Creating and Disseminating a Planning Guide to Support Community-Based 5K Fun Walk/Run and Wellness Expo Events – University of Oklahoma

RNECE-S Sub-awards Faithful Families in Tennessee: Improving the Health of Low Income Faith-Based Audiences – University of Tennessee Faithful Families: Implementation and Outcome Evaluation of Paraprofessional and Volunteer Delivery Methods in Low- income Faith Communities – University of Arkansas

RNECE-S Sub-awards Building Faith through Health in the Community and Online – University of Florida

RNECE-Northeast (NE) 12 states and District of Columbia Rural and urban 2 FNS regions – northeast and most of mid-Atlantic

RNECE-NE Goal Expand the evidence base that supports effective nutrition education of diverse low-income program participants delivered in conjunction with policy, systems, and environmental (PSE) approaches that make healthy choices easier in order to prevent obesity.

RNECE-NE Research Research Question – Does the combination of direct education and PSE changes have greater impact on obesity/dietary intake/physical activity than either alone?

RNECE-NE Sub-awards Adopting Healthy Habits in Worksites: Increasing adoption and acceptability of policy, systems, and environmental changes within agencies serving low-income families – RNECE-NE and Cornell Cooperative Extension Nutrition Ed, Access and Texting (NEAT): Combining the Hartford Mobile Market with e- Marketing – Hispanic Health Council, Hartford CT

RNECE-NE Sub-awards Sustaining a Successful Youth-Leader Program as part of a Multi-Level, Multi-Component Food Environment/ Behavioral Intervention – Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health Transforming Lifestyles: Integrating Direct Nutrition Education with Physical Activity Using the Health Care System Expansion Model – University of Maryland

RNECE- NE Sub-awards Empowering Urban Schoolchildren to Increase Fruit and Vegetable Consumption though EFNEP-enhanced PSE Interventions – University of Rhode Island

What do these research centers mean for you? – More-evidence based interventions to strengthen programming and evaluation – Data to demonstrate the effectiveness of SNAP-Ed and EFNEP

Questions?