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About
Us
Food
$ense teaches youth and adults with limited incomes skills and behaviors
to eat healthfully and maximize the value of their food dollars
and food assistance benefits.
 Food
$ense partners with community agencies to reach eligible youth and
adults.
Food
$ense complements food assistance programs by working directly with
people to provide experiential education that builds skills needed
to provide themselves and their families with nutritious, low-cost,
and safe food.
Funding Sources
Food $ense funding is a collaborative effort of USDA Food Stamp
Program, USDA- Cooperative State Research, Education and Extension
Service (CSREES), Washington State University, and over 874 local
and state community partners.
Funding
is based on two federal funding streams. The USDA-CSREES that since
1969 has funded the Expanded Food and Nutrition Education Program targeting families with young children; and since 1991,
the USDA's Food Stamp Program that has funded nutrition education
for those families or individuals who are food stamp recipients.
EFNEP:
Federal funding for EFNEP has been relatively stable for many years.
WSU commits additional resources to EFNEP with a total annual budget
of just over $1 million. The program is available in King, Pierce,
Snohomish, Spokane, and Yakima counties.
Federal
funding for Food Stamp Nutrition Education (FSNE) is provided as
an administrative expense of the Food Stamp Program. It is a reimbursement
program where local and state agency commitment of non-federal,
public funds to nutrition education targeting food stamp recipients
can be matched dollar for dollar with federal funds. WSU Extension
has contracted to conduct FSNE since 1991. Between 1991 and 2004,
WSU's FSNE funding has grown from $70,000 in 2 counties to over
$7.6 million in 25 counties.
Benefits
of Programming
Why
do community agencies partner with Food $ense? It's simple! Food
$ense:
- Extends
services to clients with no added cost to the agency
- Increases
food security for clients
- Decreases
work absenteeism
- Supports
school learning objectives
- Provides
flexible teaching locations and meeting times
 Families
benefit because Food $ense:
- Increases
ability to prepare tasty meals with basic, low-cost food
- Uses
recipes that are quick, easy, tasty and healthy
- Strengthens
relationships between family members
- Improves
school performance
- Encourages
better health habits
In
addition to these benefits, the Food $ense experience promotes self-
reliance and participants have fun learning through interactive,
hands-on activities.
Food
$ense IMPACT Highlights FY2004
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