Brief Summary of Minutes of Annual Meeting

The meeting was held in Lincoln, NE at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln East Campus from October 20 to October 22, 2011. Dr Susan Welsh from NIFA reviewed the changes in administration at NIFA. She discussed the upcoming budget for FY12 and what may impact NIFA. The next AFRI childhood obesity proposal requests will be focused on the 15-18 age group. The next NIFA-AFRI meeting will be via web in November and then the plan is to do something in person at SNEB which will be in DC in July, 2012. Deb Hamernik welcomed the group to the UNL campus. The NC1169 group had its midterm review earlier in 2011 and there were no comments, suggestions or concerns. The project is in good shape. Deb reviewed the timeline in developing and submitting another 5 year project. The NC1169 group will begin work on the new proposal in 2012. Jan Scholl had an article published in Family & Consumer Sciences Research Journal. Jan shared information about the searchable database for studies related to 4-H and EFNEP. Searches can be done by keyword or author. Some studies go back prior to EFNEP starting, as far as 1922, to capture some early extension research on obesity. Future work will expand the database to include more low-income nutrition studies and curriculum offerings. http://www.libraries.psu.edu/psul/lifesciences/agnic/EFNEP/EFNEPdatabase.html Jan was honored U.S. Department of Agriculture's National Institute of Food and Agriculture for the development of a national research database for studies related to 4-H and the Expanded Food and Nutrition Education Program. Workgroup 1 & 2 prepared our impact statement and drafted objectives for the project renewal proposal. We worked on the literature review identifying the key elements to share in a final paper. Through this discussion, we mapped out a series of tasks and research efforts to move towards an enhanced behavior checklist that will address standardized staff training and provide an appropriate, valid and reliable assessment for low income adults. We will investigate to see if some of this work can be funded through an NIH grant. A paper reporting the results from our survey of EFNEP Coordinators was submitted to JOE last February. The preliminary findings from ASA 24 electronic vs. dietary recall study are completed. A team will work on writing paper for submission. We established a timeline for the workgroup and discussed research projects for the graduate students. Workgroup 3 discussed the submission of the success story publication to the Journal of American Public Health and the development of the manuscript from the pilot QOL Project. Natalia Infante provided an overview of the work being completed on the QOL interviews of EFNEP paraprofessionals, professionals, and community partners. Funding to develop the tool and test it on a national level was discussed. Possible grant would be the PepsiCO grant on either nutrition education or food security. The group reviewed the scripts for the process for recruitment for the focus group phase of the research project. Dr Michael Steger joined the group via videoconferencing to discuss the research possibilities in developing a QOL tool for EFENP. Dave Weatherspoon from Michigan State outlined the cost-benefit type of data we would need to collect in order to do an updated CBA study. This is probably an approach we would try to apply to the next five year project. A revised timeline was developed and objectives for the next five year project were drafted. The group discussed the outline for publications. Developed a root and shoot format. Twice a year the two workgroups will update the publication committee on what publications have been submitted and what is in development. Leadership for 2011-2012 will be Wanda Koszewski and Mary Kay Wardlaw for the overall NC1169 project. Nancy Betts and Karen Barale for the Objective 1 and 2 workgroup and Garry Auld and Sandy Procter for Objective 3 workgroup. A midyear webinar meeting was set for April 27, 2012 starting at 11:00 a.m. Eastern Time. The annual meeting will be in Fort Collins, CO October 11-13, 2012.

Accomplishment: Completed a survey of EFNEP directors examining the challenges of conducting dietary assessments. Output: Publication has been prepared and submitted. Accomplishment: Completed a pilot study to determine the feasibility of using a computer-based, self-administered dietary assessment tool with EFNEP clientele with data analysis underway. Output: Publication is being prepared. Accomplishment: Drafted the literature review (objective 1) which will form the basis of an NIH grant proposal and identified gaps in research addressing dietary assessment of low income audiences. Output: Publication is being prepared. Pursuing submission of grant. Accomplishment: Established a searchable data-base of EFNEP literature and published a paper about the data base. Output: Publication in print. Website is available and will be continually updated. Accomplishment: Successfully recruited graduate students to conduct research. Output: Three graduate students have been recruited from Colorado State University. Two PhD students (Susan and Erin) will work on projects related to Objective 1 and 2. Natalia helped to complete the data collection on the QOL interviews and will complete dissertation research with objective 3 on Quality of Life. Accomplishment: QOL Pilot Project completed data collection on the QOL Pilot. Output: EFNEP participants on the QOL were primarily in being category and paraprofessionals were in belonging, but both demonstrated significance in the social belonging. Output: Publication to be prepared for submission by Spring, 2012. Output: We presented expert panel speaking on Pilot project at SNE in Kansas City, MO as part of the session on QOL research, and gained new member for Objective 3 research project from University of Illinois Extension. Accomplishment: Masters Student graduated in December, 2010. Output: MS thesis completed on A Qualitative study on EFNEP qualitative stories and the impact of the program on quality of life. Publication on the thesis will be submitted in December, 2011 to the Journal of Nutrition Education and Behavior as a research brief. Accomplishment: Qualitative Stories QOL research at the National EFNEP Coordinators meeting in Washington, DC, March, 2011. Accomplishment: Data from projects were shared with the National office and will be provided for use in the web-based EFNEP reporting system. Accomplishment: Project update (NC1169) presented at the March 2011 EFNEP Coordinators Meeting in Washington DC to federal and state EFNEP leaders. Accomplishment: Presented a concurrent session at the Society of Nutrition Education Annual Meeting in Kansas City, MO on Quality of Life in July, 2011. Accomplishment: Completed 57 phone interviews with agency partners, paraprofessionals, and EFNEP state coordinators. This research focused on the impact of EFNEP on the quality of life of participants and paraprofessionals. Accomplishment: The three initial phases of research planned for this project have been completed as scheduled (pilot, qualitative stories, and interviews). Output: Development of training piece for focus group project within Objective 3 is underway. This project involves a multi-state effort and will be completed in spring 2012.

Scholl,J., Paster, A., and Jankowski, B. 2011. Establishing a research base for the Expanded Food and Nutrition Education Program. Family & Consumer Sciences Research Journal. 39:279-288.