2025 National EFNEP Coordinators' Conference

Incorporating Diverse Nutrition Education Programs for Food Pantry Guests: A Partnership with New Hope Ministries: This session will outline how a Penn State University Nutrition Links team forged a transformative partnership with a multi-center food assistance network to deliver impactful nutrition education programs. The presenters will outline the collaborative journey, strategies, and outcomes from their work using a combined delivery approach with both the Expanded Food and Nutrition Education Program (EFNEP) and Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program – Education (SNAP-Ed). This program also provides a model for extending the EFNEP and SNAP-Ed programs into Policy, Systems, and Environment work and delivering Extension programs such as Dining with Diabetes.
The team will provide strategies to overcome initial barriers to build a robust and collaborative relationship with the food pantry network, enabling the delivery of essential nutrition education to guests of all ages. Both sides of the partnership contributed resources to recruit and retain participants across the class series, and nutrition educators created a welcoming environment. The team will share data on the significant improvements observed in participants’ dietary habits, food resource management, and overall food security, as evidenced by data collected from multiple locations. Attendees will gain insights into best practices for creating effective partnerships in community nutrition education through diverse programs.

Join this session to explore how collaboration can lead to sustainable change in addressing food and nutrition challenges!


The Impact of a Community Garden on EFNEP Programming at the Dream Center: University of Missouri Extension’s Family Nutrition Education Programs (EFNEP and SNAP-Ed) have partnered with the Missouri Department of Social Services to acquire Community Block Grant Program (CBGP) funding to purchase school and community garden infrastructure items. This funding was made available post-pandemic in response to the supply chain disruptions many Missouri communities experienced. While the original goal was to reduce community food insecurity, the impacts of this funding has gone well beyond the original goal.

These funds have enabled communities increase food production. However, it was also important to ensure that 1) these funds support community nutrition education programs (EFNEP & SNAP-Ed); 2) gardens are utilized as a hands-on learning laboratory for education; and 3) the community lead decisions related to the garden, including what is grown and how it is distributed.

This presentation will focus on the impact of EFNEP programs in St. Louis and specifically at the Dream Center. The Dream Center provides a year-long residential education and workforce development program for men. The Dream Center also provides several community services including an on-campus food pantry, a free lunch for community members, and evening barbecues/meals several nights each week. The presentation will also explore opportunities for increasing impact through community gardens and external funding.

In this session, participants will learn how to 1) extend nutrition educationl program impacts; 2) increase local food security; 3) empower participants in determining how to increase food security in their community; and 4) leverage external funding opportunities to achieve greater impacts.