Muskegon County Muskegon County Extension P: 231-724-6361 E-mail: [email protected] 97 E. Apple Avenue Web: msue.msu.edu/Muskegon Muskegon, MI 49442 F: 231-724-4409 Fall 2008 MSU Extension program promotes Parenting education programs work healthy living for Reeths-Puffer to strengthen Muskegon families residents Thanks to two grants, one from the Community Exercising every day and eating a balanced diet is a Foundation for Muskegon County and one from the challenge for many people. To help young people of the Gerber Foundation, Muskegon County families will Reeths-Puffer Neighborhood Improvement Association now have access to parenting education programs begin to develop healthier lifestyles, MSU Extension through the Muskegon MSU Extension office. offered an exercise and health series of sessions through its Children, Youth and Families At Risk-Partnerships Family and consumer science Extension educator for Activism and Social Justice (CYFAR-PASJ) Cyndi Will has developed a series of lessons that are program. being offered to families as one-on-one experiences by program associate Linda Roossien. 4-H youth educator Frank Cox and CYFAR-PASJ coordinator LaQuandra Tucker led the sessions that were focused on bringing youth and adults together to learn and develop healthy living habits. The group started a weight loss challenge and exercise/health support group that meets twice a week to encourage becoming active and eating right.

At each of the sessions participants took part in organized exercise, discussed their challenges with maintaining a healthier lifestyle and offered each other support. Cox and Tucker used materials provided by This young mom is participating in the MSU Extension Parenting Education program. MSU Extension family and consumer science educators Parents can also choose to take part in small group Cyndi Will and Margaret Hauxwell. As a result of this lessons. Local agencies and organizations that work healthy challenge, members of the group lost a total of with families have referred parents to these classes 25 pounds. and several sessions have taken place focused on grandparents raising grandchildren at Hackley As next steps, the group will collaborate with the adults Community Care. in the neighborhood along with MSU Extension, to design an educational experience focused on creating a healthy community. Guest speakers will talk about neighborhood design conduct a walking assessment of Building strong communities Strengthening agricultural profitability the community. They hope to put in place changes that Encouraging responsible land and natural resource use will encourage healthier lifestyles for all Reeths-Puffer Building healthy families residents. Helping youth succeed

Michigan State University Extension helps people improve their lives through an educational process that applies knowledge to critical issues, needs and opportunities. Offices in counties across the state link the research of the land-grant university, MSU, to challenges facing communities. Citizens serving on county Extension councils regularly help select focus areas for programming. MSU Extension is funded jointly by county boards of commissioners, the state through Michigan State University and federally through the US Department of Agriculture. MSU Extension offers residents of all ages the taste of healthy eating

MSU Extension educators have been busy cooking up new ways to help Muskegon County residents of all ages learn about nutrition. Their efforts have taken them across the county and included a number of partners. Commissioners support Breastfeeding In one effort, MSU Extension joined with Access Awareness Month Health, Inc., to host “Taste of the Season,” a series of food preparation classes for their clients. The program “Muskegon Mothers Breastfeed with Pride,” is what focused on locally grown produce and participants several billboards in Muskegon County proclaim. The learned how to save money while eating healthy and Muskegon County Board of Commissioners voiced their supporting local farmers. They worked in teams support for that effort by adopting a resolution declaring preparing recipes with featured produce. August as Breastfeeding Awareness Month in Muskegon County. The first session highlighted summer produce like Muskegon MSU Extension has two breastfeeding peer tomatoes, onions, zucchini, cucumbers, cantaloupe, counselors who work with new moms to support their green peppers and kohlrabi. An evaluation following efforts. They partner with the Muskegon County Health this session showed that participants enjoyed the class Department through the WIC (Women Infants Children) and would like to have one for every season. They also program to help new mothers and pregnant women with indicated they had learned about new foods and gained limited resources learn about the importance of new information food and healthy eating. breastfeeding to infant health.

More sessions will follow in the coming fall, winter and A recent report from the Agency for Healthcare Research spring focused on fruits and vegetables of the season. and Quality confirms that infants benefit from breastfeeding in a number of ways including: Nutrition educators Lorraine Lee Ball and Lisa Chalker  fewer episodes of diarrhea in infancy worked with volunteer Dorothy Perkins of enCompass,  decreased incidence of childhood leukemia an organization supporting urban neighborhoods, to set  fewer cases of Sudden Infant Death Syndrome up an educational session with eight young people  reduced risk of ear infection between ages 18 to 20 who had recently moved out on  reduced respiratory tract infections their own and needed to learn food preparation. Additionally, children with a family history of asthma are 40 percent less likely to develop asthma if they are The group learned how to plan menus around food breastfed and have a reduced risk of developing type I and items they had in the house and use recipes that could type II diabetes. be adapted for one or made into individual meals and frozen. For mothers who do not breastfeed there is good evidence to suggest there is an increased risk of type II diabetes, Ball and Chalker also had the opportunity to do a ovarian cancer and breast cancer. summer nutrition series for the students at Holton Middle School. Food labs were the part of the six-week In Muskegon County, 70 percent of the WIC-eligible program with the class divided into four families. moms who enrolled in the MSU Extension program initiated breastfeeding, compared with less than 45 percent of WIC moms not receiving support. One of the highlights of the series was “Fruit and Nearly two thirds of the WIC moms enrolled in the Vegetable Fear Factor,” an exercise that encouraged program were still breastfeeding when their babies were students to taste a number of foods they had never eaten two months old, compared less than 40 percent of WIC before. Students were surprised to discover that foods moms who were not receiving support. they have often feared were actually good! MSU is an affirmative-action, equal opportunity employer; Michigan State University Extension programs and materials are open to all without regard to race, color, national origin, gender, gender identity, religion, age, height, weight, disability, political beliefs, sexual orientation, marital status, or family status, or veteran status. Issued in furtherance of MSU Extension work, acts of May 8 and June 30, 1914, in cooperation with the US Department of Agriculture, Thomas G Coon, Director, MSU Extension, East Lansing, MI 48824. This information is for educational purposes only. Reference to commercial products or trade names does not imply endorsement by MSU Extension or bias against those not mentioned.