2006 Grassroots Food Safety, Food Defense and Nutrition Education Initiatives

CFSAN has funded 25 grassroots food safety, food defense and nutrition education projects to be conducted around the country by FDA Public Affairs Specialists (PASes). This year a large number of the projects target underserved populations, while others are aimed at susceptible populations including pregnant women and seniors. A majority of the projects target culturally diverse populations. New this year are many projects focused on nutrition education.

Now in its ninth year, the CFSAN/PAS Education Project Award Program has used a variety of innovative and effective means to deliver vital food safety information and training to consumers and key local multipliers such as WIC personnel, community organizations and local agencies serving multicultural populations.

Many of the projects funded are multicultural and multilingual, including:

• Raw produce and refrigeration safety training for low-income Hispanic consumers in Portland, Oregon.
• Food safety and nutrition campaign for Polish-speaking consumers in Chicago, Illinois and Milwaukee, Wisconsin.
• Food safety and nutrition training for low-income Hispanic consumers in the East End of Houston, Texas.
• Translation and dissemination of nutrition information for Asian communities in the Los Angeles and San Francisco, California areas.
• Train trainers in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma in outreach to Hispanic consumers on prevention of food-related health problems such as obesity and diabetes.
• Food safety training of the Adult Expanded Nutrition Program in Tarrant County, Texas.
• Food defense awareness among food and health professionals in Puerto Rico.

Several of the projects funded utilize CFSAN's "Food Safety for Moms-To-Be" and "Preventing Listeriosis in Pregnant Hispanic Women" tool kits for health educators, including:

• Promoting healthy pregnancies in southeastern Pennsylvania.
• Food safety and nutrition workshops for pregnant women at WIC clinics throughout New York City.
• Food safety for pregnant women and families in southeastern Michigan.
• Train trainers in using the Moms-To-Be kits in the US Virgin Islands.

Several projects funded involve food safety exhibits and demonstrations, including:

• A bilingual exhibit for Hispanic and African-American consumers on using the Nutrition Facts panel on food labels for weight management and diabetes compliance.
• The FDA Centennial exhibit at the Mid-Atlantic Food, Beverage and Lodging Expo in Baltimore, Maryland and at the Virginia State Fair in Richmond.
• Food safety exhibit and workshop at the 21st Annual Texas Head Start/Early Head Start Association Training Conference.
• Multilingual food safety exhibits at Border Binational Health Week events in the San Francisco, California area.
• Raw produce and refrigeration safety workshops for low-income seniors in Seattle, Washington.

Four of the funded projects target food service including:

• Development of food safety compliance posters in Spanish and Chinese for Denver food service operations.
• Train-the-trainer workshops on school food service HACCP and food defense in New Jersey in cooperation with the New Jersey Department of Agriculture.
• Safe food handling training for Orange County, Florida public school students.
• Bilingual personal hygiene signage for food service establishments in El Paso, Texas.

And, finally, three on-going projects have been funded involving general food safety campaigns in central Florida, Georgia and South Carolina.

If you would like any more information on these projects, please contact Howard Seltzer at .