By Reina Hasting
We have some longevity to celebrate! Dana Davis (pictured left in her office) and Danielle Craven (pictured middle in Bethel during smelt season), both started in the fall of 2023 and celebrated one year with CES SNAP-Ed and Reina Hasting (pictured right teaching in early spring 2014) celebrated 10 years with CES.
SNAP-Ed had program activities in Anchorage, Bethel, Dillingham, Fairbanks, Mat-Su, Nenana and Nome this last quarter. We worked with schools, food banks and pantries and other nonprofit organizations to help make the healthier choice the easier choice for our communities.
From January to March 2025, 334 unduplicated participants participated in nutrition education lessons. Preliminary results from 125 participants completing a series show the following impact so far:
• 32% of students surveyed increased their weekly fruit consumption
• 28% of students increased their weekly vegetable consumption
• 27% of students reported reading nutrition facts labels more frequently
• 31% of students increased their frequency of physical activity throughout the week
• 27% of participants reduced their frequency of drinking soda
Some favorite quotes:
• “I like lettuce. It has good nutrition and it has vitamins. I just love it!” — third-grade girl in Bethel
• “I read the nutrition label with my parents when we went to the grocery store” fourth-grader in Nenana
• In Mat-Su, a third-grade student said they began “eating a salad every day.”
• In Anchorage, students have been enjoying the lessons and healthy food demos. A seventh-grader said, “It’s like we are at Costco tasting the food samples!”
• In Dillingham during the Beaver Round Up, folks participated in a workshop about finding added sugars and making a healthier smoothie. One youth who participated in the morning session with her mom came back later with friends saying, “I brought my friends so they could participate, too!”
