Martin Luther King, Jr. asked the question: What are you doing for others? To honor his life, service and sacrifice, take a moment to learn about several ways the 13,000 OSU Extension Service volunteers serve the people of Oregon.
Honey bees are crucial pollinators for blueberries, pears, cherries, apples and some vegetable seeds. (Photo by Lynn Ketchum.)
Without pollinators, most plants cannot produce fruit and seeds. Pollinators such as bees, bats, butterflies and birds help pollinate over 75% of our flowering plants, and nearly 75% of our corps.1
The almost 500 people that have enrolled in the Oregon Master Beekeeper Program understand the importance of bees to our food supply. OSU Extension Service created the program to help people help our struggling bee population. Participants are paired with mentors in cities around the state. They learn to harvest honey, treat for pests and diseases, and help colonies survive the winter.2
Graduates of the beekeeper program serve others: each is required to share their new knowledge, for example with beekeeping clubs and schools.
Speaking of feeding Oregonians, unemployment and the increasing cost of living are forcing more Oregonians to seek food assistance. To help stretch limited budgets, the OSU Extension Service and the Oregon Food Bank launched the Seed to Supper program, a free, five-week gardening course taught in English and Spanish. The course enables novice gardeners to affordably grow some of their own food.
Participants in the Seed to Supper classes improve their diets with fresh vegetables. (Photo: Hannah O’Leary)
Extension-trained Master Gardeners teach participants where to find free and reduced-cost soil, compost, seeds, starts, trellis materials, mulch, tools, garden space and OSU Extension gardening publications.2 Master Gardeners also serve the people of Oregon with their knowledge, passion for gardening and a minimum of 70 hours of volunteer service (though many dedicated Master Gardeners volunteer many times the expected hours).
Master Woodland Managers share their knowledge with other landholders. About 70,000 small woodland owners hold title to nearly 5 million acres, or 40 percent, of the state’s private forestland. Each year, they harvest about 11 percent of the state’s annual wood production. But not all of them have a background in forestry or know what to do with their land.
To help small private landowners, the OSU Extension Service created the Master Woodland Manager Program, which educates these owners on topics such as management planning, ecology and forest inventory methods. In return for 80 hours of instruction from professional foresters and forestry instructors, the trainees agree to volunteer a similar number of hours to help other small woodland owners. On average, most Master Woodland Managers have volunteered for almost 10 years. Some have served for more than 20 years!
Oregon’s forestland owners manage almost 5 million acres. (Photo by Lynn Ketchum.)
Since its inception in 1983, nearly 500 landowners have completed the program, volunteered close to 96,000 hours and reported over 130,000 contacts with the public, family forestland owners and various organizations.2
Thank you to the OSU Extension – and its many volunteers – for serving the people of Oregon and providing meaningful ways for volunteers to pursue their areas of interests and passions while also serving the people of Oregon.
Tell us your favorite story of service! Don’t be shy.
Throughout the North Coast and South West Extension Service Regions, the adult and childhood obesity incidence is greater than the Oregon average. In fact, few Americans consume the minimum recommended amount of whole grains, vegetables or fruits.
“Tastes great and so easy!! Will make it again and again,” said one fan of the fish taco recipe on FoodHero.org, a website jointly funded by OSU Extension Service and USDA Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP).
Fish Tacos is one of 286 recipes posted on the Food Hero website. The vetted, healthy recipes can be sorted by number of ingredients, meal preparation time, cooking method, kid approved (yes, they actually survey kids to see if they like the food!) and more. Cooking tips and tools, including how to balance calories and shop on a budget, are also offered on the site.
“Food Hero is a research-based social marketing campaign aimed at parents who use the Internet and have kids under the age of 18 living in their homes,” stated Lauren Tobey, OSU nutrition specialist. The goal is simple: show parents and their kids how easy it is to eat more fruits and vegetables, whether fresh, frozen or canned.
A partnership with Grocery Outlet put flyers featuring two potato-based Food Hero recipes — Chicken, Potato and Pepper Bake and Superhero Shepherd’s Pie — and a coupon for a free 10lb. bag of russet potatoes (with a $10 minimum purchase) in Oregon newspapers in December. Another flyer/coupon will run in January.
The OSU Extension Service North Coast Region (Columbia, Clatsop, Tillamook and Lincoln counties) and South West Region (Lane, Douglas, Coos and Curry counties) teamed up to submit coordinating proposals for two full awards of $25,000 each (totaling $50,000) through the Moore Family Center Healthy Communities Outreach Project grant. Led by Jenny Rudolph, Lead Principal Investigator, the proposal was based on a strong partnership with the state SNAP-Ed team along with county-based Family Community Health (FCH) and 4-H faculty, and many local partners.
In March 2015, the campaign team partnered with OSU Interactive Communications to produce a series of short videos. The videos feature local families making healthy, whole-grain recipes together. The videos, which can be seen on FoodHero.org, are designed to empower low income families to prepare healthy meals together, demonstrate easy, fun ways for kids to help in the kitchen, promote the use of low-cost whole grains in family meals, and to increase awareness of the FoodHero.org website as a resource for healthy recipes and tips.
A 30-second commercial was also produced in English and in Spanish. The English version was distributed in a media buy campaign along the North Coast and South West regions, appearing June 12 through August 6 as a preview ad at theaters in Astoria, Lincoln City, Newport, Seaside, Springfield, North Bend, and Roseburg, including the opening weekend of Jurassic World. Audience estimates totaled 537,000.
In Southern Oregon, local Coordinated Care organizations (CCO) are very supportive of the OSU SNAP-Ed programs. “They have similar community health goals to reduce obesity, improve nutrition choices among children and adults, and increase food security,” said Cheryl Kirk, community health instructor at Josephine County Extension Service. “When I showed the Food Hero video segments to my partner at All Care CCO, she was excited about the possibility to run the 30-second spot in local theaters. So I basically connected the dots with OSU media, Sally Bowman, program manager for Family and Community Health/SNAP-Ed, and the CCO. We were all excited that this could happen during the busy holiday movie season and the release of the new Star Wars movie.” Theater ads will run December 18 through January 8 in Medford, Grants Pass and White City. The campaign coincides with the release of Star Wars: The Force Awakens. An estimated audience of 105,000 will view the video commercial.
An online media buy featured the video commercial, which linked back to the Food Hero website. The online campaign was targeted to the North Coast and South West Regions June 12 through August 10 creating an estimated 524,000 impressions.
Oregon Department of Human Services (DHS) is distributing the videos to their county offices for caseworkers to use in DHS lobbies. And all county SNAP-Ed units across the state are encouraged to use the videos at local events.
The video project team received the 2015 OSU Extension Association Oscar Hagg Communications Award in recognition of superior and distinguished achievement in effectively utilizing creative communications techniques.
According to Sally Bowman, the Oregon Department of Education is scaling and crediting Food Hero recipes for meal programs in schools and childcare settings. At least 100 credited recipes meeting Federal guidelines for school meals will be available to school kitchens.
If you’re tired of the same old recipes, or want to start eating a healthier diet on a budget, you will find many new recipes — from Almond Rice Pudding to Zucchini Zowie — to try throughout the new year.
Share a favorite recipe loaded with fruits, vegetables or whole grains in the comment section below.
