Good luck!

1. Youth Service America is offering grants of up to $1,000 to students, teachers, and staff members of community-based organizations working within a public K-12 school, or service learning coordinators, for service-learning projects in all 50 states and the District of Columbia. Deadline: 11/9/2011. http://tinyurl.com/6y7ynqn
2. USDA has funding available to nonprofits for grants to plan or implement community food projects that improve health and/or nutrition among disadvantaged and/or low-income populations and communities. Deadline: 11/17/2011. http://tinyurl.com/5t9vwuf
3. Farmers and ranchers with innovative ideas for producing or marketing their crops or products may find funding through the SARE Farmer-Rancher Grants program. Proposals are due December 2, 2011 for up to $22,000. Go to: http://www.cfra.org/node/3524 . The North-Central Region Sustainable Ag Research and Education (NCSARE) Program expects to fund 45 farmer-led projects in 2012. These projects can address production, marketing, processing, environmental impacts, and community effects of farming and ranching. Projects would test or demonstrate a new idea and include a way of telling other farmers about it. This year the grant has a new category for partner-applicants. Individuals may apply for up to $7500, partners may ask for $15,000, and groups may ask for $22,500. Interested applicants can find the call for proposals as well as useful information for completing a proposal at: http://www.northcentralsare.org/Grants/. Assistance is available from grant coordinator Joan Benjamin at benjaminj@lincolnu.edu, 573.681.5545 or 800.529.1342.

On Tuesday, Helen Veit, the author of the recent NY Times article was interviewed on Talk of the Nation. You can listen to it or read it online. There are some great comments and stories.

Veit makes the point that FACS is necessary and broad reaching…

I think there’s a, sort of, vacuum of basic life skills, including balancing the checkbook, organizing your bills. What I do know is that the cooking part of it is what I think should be addressed first. And then perhaps from there, these other life skills could be incorporated.

It’s an important aspect of promoting FACS – helping the general public (parents, students, future FACS teachers) understand that healthy habits mean nutrition and eating- but it also means budgets, management, career development and so much more.

We’ve also see a lot of discussion on this article in listservs, such as the NASAFACS listserv. In fact, there was a great example of a passionate FACS teacher who had written to Ms. Veit about her experience teaching more than 3000 FACS students. Ms. Veit’s response was encouraging…

It sounds like you’re teaching absolutely wonderful classes. I wish all students in the country got to take classes like yours. It’s great to hear that in some places such programs are going strong.

I like to think that growing attention on FACS will help to highlight the FACS teachers who are passionate, dedicated, engaging and doing a great job teaching healthy eating and health life skills. And we know who we are!

First I think we can agree on the premise…

The home economics movement was founded on the belief that housework and food preparation were important subjects that should be studied scientifically.

And we can agree that the statement is at least as true now as it was in the 1800’s, as reflected by the fact that Veit adds…

Too many Americans simply don’t know how to cook. Our diets, consisting of highly processed foods made cheaply outside the home thanks to subsidized corn and soy, have contributed to an enormous health crisis. More than half of all adults and more than a third of all children are overweight or obese. Chronic diseases associated with weight gain, like heart disease and diabetes, are hobbling more and more Americans.

From a human perspective, our poor health of today makes the case that there should be an increased focus on teaching healthy eating, nutrition and life skills in schools. From a public health perspective, it makes financial sense to invest in FACS education today to reduce health care costs in the future.

Veit makes the case herself…

Indeed, in the early 20th century, home economics was a serious subject. When few understood germ theory and almost no one had heard of vitamins, home economics classes offered vital information about washing hands regularly, eating fruits and vegetables and not feeding coffee to babies, among other lessons.

Eventually, however, the discipline’s basic tenets about health and hygiene became so thoroughly popularized that they came to seem like common sense.

Wouldn’t we love to see nutrition and life skills once again become so popularized as to seem like common sense? Again, we in the field know that good work is being done by folks such as the American Association of Family & Consumer Sciences and National Extension Association of Family and Consumer Sciences. Just this summer, the USDA unveiled the USDA MyPlate, which is a tool we can use to help teach healthy eating. So while there are some statements in the original Op Ed that may have rubbed us the wrong way (“NOBODY likes home economics.”), there is certainly truth in the idea that we need an increased focus on teaching healthy eating, nutrition and life skills in schools.

PRINT JULIA ROBERTS ARTICLE HERE!  from LearningZoneXpress.com

The FABULOUS FRIDAY INTERNET SALE continues!

Here’s the SNEAK PEEK for August 12th.

CLASSROOM & FACS POSTERS only $5.00 EACH!

ON AUGUST 5th, CLICK ON ANY POSTER TO ORDER.

Positive Practies in Class Poster ONLY $5.00!

Class Rules Poster Set of 4 ONLY $5.00!

Making The Cut Knives Skills Poster ONLY $5.00!

 

Cell Phone Manners Poster ONLY $5.00!

 

Sewing Tools Poster ONLY $5.00!

 

Doing the Dishes Posters (6 of the same) ONLY $5.00!

 

Mastering Measuring Poster ONLY $5.00!

 

 

Melanie Nelson, former FACS (Family and Consumer Science) teacher and owner of Learning ZoneXpress, Inc. , a company that develops educational products to teach nutrition and healthy living says, “The new plate icon is a powerful image for young people.  Our 1 Great Plate TM series has been popular for a year, and Learning ZoneXpress, Inc will have the new USDA MyPlate icon available in products by the end of the day, June 3.”

The 2010 Dietary Guidelines for Americans, issued by the USDA in January of this year form the basis of the federal

government’s nutrition and education programs, federal assistance programs and dietary advice provided by health and nutrition professionals.

The Guidelines messages include: Balance Calories, Foods to Increase and Foods to Reduce.  The recommendations are:

1. Physical activity of 30 minutes per day for all ages, 60 minutes per day for children and teens and 60-90 minutes for those who want to lose weight.
2. Choose nutrient rich foods: vegetables, fruits and whole grains, fat-free or low-fat milk and milk products, seafood, lean meats and poultry, eggs, beans and peas, nuts and seeds.
3. Limit the intake of: sodium, solid fats, added sugars and refined grains.

These recommended guidelines are intended as an integrated set of advice to achieve an overall healthy eating pattern.  The new food icon is meant to be a simple easy reminder for families, children and nutrition professionals.

For more information visit www.ChooseMyPlate.gov or www.learningzonexpress.com

Math in Design Curriculum by Debbie Larson

A big round of applause is in order for FACS teacher and Learning ZoneXpress curriculum author Deborah Larson. She has recently been named 2011 Minnesota Family and Consumer Sciences Teacher of the Year! Read the article here. Debbie is passionate about promoting FACS as a viable course through creating and implementing a unique approach to teaching important life skills by injecting math concepts into her curriculum. Recipe conversion, nutrient analysis and grocery cost comparisons are just a few of the practical ways she ties math into “foods” courses, while measurement and geometry are logically explained through clothing construction and interior design.  

Interested in how you can incorporate math concepts into your Family and Consumer Sciences classes? Check out both of Debbie’s books: Math In Foods and Math In Design (available soon) from Learning ZoneXpress.

Math In Foods Curriculum by Debbie Larson

These nutrition and health education products “were found to be in alignment with one or more of the Healthy Schools Program Framework Criteria and consistent with the American Heart Association standards for scientific validity and accuracy,” according to a letter from the Alliance for a Healthier Generation.

Check out the products they chose:

• Marketing Your School Foodservice DVD and Guide
• School Lunch Makeovers DVD
• Obesity in a Bottle DVD
• Breakfast Because DVD
• 50 Web Based Lesson Plans for Nutrition & Health
• 5 Minute Food & Nutrition Activities
• 5 Minute Nutrition Activities for Elementary

• Smart Nutrition DVD – Silver Telly Award
• Easy Being Green DVD – Silver Telly Award
• Child Development Theorists DVD – Bronze Telly Award
• Nutrition Controversies DVD – Bronze Telly Award
• Fast Food Nutrition DVD – Bronze Telly Award
• Interior Design Project: Furniture Styles DVD – Bronze Telly Award
• The Montessori Method DVD – Bronze Telly Award

See past Telly Award winners here.