Brief Summary of Minutes of Annual Meeting

The annual meeting was held 10/14/2025 to 10/15/2025 virtually via Zoom online conferencing. WERA 1025 Attendees included:

Received updates from the working groups

Each working group provided a brief overview of their current projects, progress, and any challenges they are navigating.

Presentation: National Extension Mental Health & Well-Being Community of Practice

Dr. Jen Mroch presented an overview of the national Community of Practice focused on mental health and well-being. The presentation highlighted its purpose, structure, and opportunities for MHNN members to engage or benefit from shared resources.

Presentation: Master Wellness Program at the University of Arizona

Gayle Gratop introduced the Master Wellness Program and discussed how trained volunteers support community health and education. She also shared insights from their pilot efforts and how the model could complement extension programming.

Discussion: How to apply these Models

Dr. Alison Brennan led a group discussion on how elements of the Community of Practice and Master Wellness Program might be integrated into MHNN. Participants explored potential adaptations, collaborations, and benefits to the network’s work.

Review and Road mapping

We revisited our existing MHNN goals and reflected on what we accomplished over the past year to help identify priorities for the year ahead. Building on that discussion, we worked together to develop a roadmap for Year 2, outlining key activities, timelines, and shared responsibilities. This combined session helped us clarify next steps and ensure alignment across all areas of our network’s work.

Chair elections

Members held elections to select the new chair and vice chair for the upcoming year. This leadership transition helps ensure ongoing direction and continuity for MHNN activities.

Presentation: SNAP-Ed Conversation Kickoff: “Moving Forward”

Macy Helm facilitated a conversation on the evolving landscape of SNAP-Ed and what changes mean for the field.

Presentation: Enhancing Exercise and Nutrition in People with Substance Use and Co-Occurring Mental Health Disorders

Dr. Nora Nock shared research on improving nutrition and physical activity among individuals with substance use and co-occurring mental health disorders. Her presentation highlighted opportunities for alignment with MHNN’s work.

Background considerations for the 2024-2025 year

Significant changes at the federal and state levels impacted the 2024-2025 project year objectives. The One Big Beautiful Bill (OBBB) Act of 2025 in July 2025 ended federal funding for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program Education (SNAP-Ed). A portion of the network members worked as SNAP-Ed educators or directors. The loss of funding lead to a loss of members in the network and shifted the focus of other members decreasing their ability to contribute to the group. Furthermore, changes at USDA and funding freezes limited our ability to apply for conference grants. Despite these challenges, the Mental Health and Nutrition Network has made accomplishments in the 2024-2025 period and has re-organized to meet the needs of the changing local, state, and federal landscapes. The annual meeting focused on developing new strategies to meet our objectives as well as presentations from professionals developing novel projects to apply to the MHNN.

Project Objectives:

1. Identify existing mental health and nutrition resources and gaps in existing resources related to the intersection of mental health and nutrition.
   Comments: Objective 1 throughout
2. Develop out the existing WRMHNN into an intersectional extension program on mental health and nutrition using the Project ECHO model.
   Comments: Objective 2 throughout
3. Initiate a research portfolio across the WR investigating the intersectionality of nutrition and mental health.
   Comments: Objective 3 throughout

Short -Term Outcomes

No short-term outcomes yet.

Outputs

Our current outputs buildout objective 1, Identify existing mental health and nutrition resources and gaps in existing resources related to the intersection of mental health and nutrition.

The Data, Evaluation, and Common Measures working group, led by Sabina Malik at the University of Nevada Reno, developed and published a nutrition focused entry in the University of California San Fransico Stress Measurement Network Toolbox. https://www.stressmeasurement.org/nutrition

This entry provides background and description of how stress impacts eating behaviors as well as how to measure dietary intake, eating behaviors, and cognitive measures. This will help other researchers interested in the intersection of diet and mental health choose validated measures that meet their study needs. 

The Program Evaluation group evaluated 21 existing programs related to mental health and nutrition. They found that few programs included both mental health and nutrition. Of the 21 programs, 2 were rated as “balanced” between mental health and nutrition content: Health Body Healthy Brain and Keys to Embracing Aging. However, both programs are targeted to older adults showing a need for more programing incorporating nutrition and mental health content for more groups across the lifespan.

The Program Development and Training group sent a survey to assess MHNN members’ familiarity with key mental health and nutrition programs to identify additional key stakeholders. Unfortunately, due to the loss of SNAP Ed funding the lead of this group lost her position and is not able to continue MHNN work.

The Steering Committee produced two newsletters keeping the larger network informed in July 2025 and October 2024. Both are attached.

Activities

No activities yet.

Milestones (2024-2025)

Year 1 (2024-2025): Planning and environment assessment

Conduct a needs assessment to understand the current landscape of mental health and nutrition in the WR. (Objective 1)

We were not able to meet this objective in the first year due to significant changes in federal funding and federal organization. However, we believe the needs assessment will be more important in the coming year as the changes experienced in 2024-2025 settle. We can focus on emerging challenges in both the mental health and nutrition. 

Increase recruitment with a focus on members from the US Pacific Territories and 1994 Institutions. (Objective 1)

We experienced a flux in membership with losses due to changes in SNAP-Ed funding. However, we also gained several new members and currently we have 125 people on our email list, and we have new members from University of California and New Mexico State University. We will continue to increase recruitment from US Pacific Territories and 1994 Institutions.

Initialize resource repository for relevant literature, tool kits, and educational materials. (Objective 1, 3)

The stress registry is a repository of relevant literature and resources for studying nutrition in a stress context. The Program Evaluation has an evaluation matrix with the current 21 programs and is working on publishing it to the website.

Develop Project ECHO model (Objective 2)

We began to develop our project ECHO plan at the annual meeting. Further development will continue in year two.

Develop satellite meetings at related professional society meetings (Objective 3)

This was paused for year 1 and we will continue to develop satellite meetings at professional societies in year 2.

Plan for year 2

Going forward we have concluded the working groups and re-grouped all members into the steering committee. The single steering committee will work on the year 2 milestones outlined below.

Updated milestones for year 2: Capacity building and resource development

• From year 1 Conduct a needs assessment to understand the current landscape of mental health and nutrition in the WR. (Objective 1)
  • Aim to start in February 2026 and finish in April 2026
  • [Stakeholder input] From the evaluation of the existing programs (see above), we know that programs with mental health and nutrition content are limited to older adults.
  • [Stakeholder input] From our annual meeting, we also know that nutrition education will be an emerging need and we will gauge the interest in incorporating mental health content into new and needed nutrition education programs. This may be important to help individuals understand changes in SNAP funding and changes in SNAP eligible foods from SNAP waivers.
• From year 1 Develop Project ECHO model (Objective 2)
  • We have already begun to investigate Project ECHO as a partner; this year we will decide if the Project ECHO platform is the most advantageous or if a different platform is better suited. We aim to have a decision by June 2026
• Establish partnerships with academic institutions, healthcare providers, and community organizations to leverage expertise and resources. (Objective 1)
  • We continue to do this through our email list. Because of overlap in membership, we are reaching out to the WR AgStress network to find arena where we can work together and reduce overlap. We aim to have an outline of a partnership by July 2026.
• Based on needs assessment from Year 1 and repository of relevant resources, develop training workshops and webinars on nutrition and mental health research, evidence interventions, and best practices in community engagement. (Objective 1)
  • Because this requires information from delayed needs assessment, we will begin this process in May 2026, and we expect to develop necessary resources through October 2026 and into year 3.
  • [Stakeholder input] Based on the work of the Program Evaluation working group, programming including both mental health and nutrition content is limited and focused on older adults. We will begin development of pilot workshops with both mental health and nutrition information across the life span.
• Develop and or adapt evaluation measures for the workshops and webinars. (Objective 1)
  • Because this requires information from delayed needs assessment, we will begin this process in May 2026, and we expect to develop necessary resources through October 2026 and into year 3.
• Collaborate with professional societies to host the WRMHNN meeting through USDA conference grant funding (Objective 3)
  • We are uncertain the status of the USDA conference funding and evolving regulations on professional society memberships. We are pausing this until we have a clear picture of what societies we are able to work with under new guidelines.
• From year 1 Increase recruitment with a focus on members from the US Pacific Territories and 1994 Institutions. (Objective 1)
  • This is a continuing effort. We will evaluate the email list membership to see if there are individuals from these institutions and aim to bring them into the steering committee.