May 14, 2002

While, as in the past, this year's grassroots food safety education projects focus on cultural diversity and populations highly susceptible to foodborne illness, a growing emphasis can be seen on food safety training of food service personnel and the importance of food safety education for pregnant women.

Now in its fifth year, the PAS Food Safety Education Project Award Program has conveyed vital food safety information and training to consumers and key local multipliers such as WIC personnel, day care and church employees, and staff from a wide range of local agencies serving multicultural populations. In addition, participating Public Affairs specialists (PAS's) and their partners from other Federal, state and local agencies and the private sector have used a variety of innovative and effective means to deliver food safety education.

In cooperation with FDA's Office of Regulatory Affairs, sixteen projects have been selected and will be funded by FDA's Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition (CFSAN).

Four projects target multicultural food handlers:

• Two projects will train and certify Spanish-speaking food service personnel in Colorado, one in the rural Southeast, the other in more populous El Paso County;


• Similar projects will focus on Spanish-speaking food handlers in South Florida and the Twin cities area of Minnesota.

Four are train-the-trainer programs, providing training as food safety educators to:

• Kids Café (food bank) staff in Oklahoma City, Ardmore and Enid, Oklahoma;


• WIC personnel who work with low-income pregnant women and mothers of young children in Western New York;


• Volunteers who work with seniors in Florida; and,


• County Extension Nutrition Education Assistants in Oklahoma.

The remaining eight are direct community education initiatives:

• Handwashing workshops for kids aged 3-5 in child care programs at YMCA, YWCA, Boys and Girls Clubs and Christopher House in Chicago;


• Bilingual food safety workshops for pregnant women in all five boroughs of New York City;


• Promotion of safe ethnic recipes in partnership with food markets in Los Angeles. Santa Ana and Riverside, California;


• Family food safety education programs at elementary schools, churches and food pantries in Indianapolis;


• Education for consumers in Puerto Rico on keeping food safe in the event of a natural disaster;


• Handwashing training and poster contests for elementary school children in Houston; and,


• In-store consumer information on produce and juice safety in New Jersey supermarkets.

Food Safety Initiative Staff E-mail: chall@cfsan.fda.gov	Office Number: (301) 436-2125 · FAX (301) 436-2605 CFSAN Web site: http://www.cfsan.fda.gov/

Hypertext updated by dav 2002-MAY-16