EFNEP, the nation’s first federal nutrition education program, has successfully balanced constancy and change to improve the food and physical activity behaviors of low-income families and youth. In 1969, teaching was conducted one-on-one in the home.
Today, peer educator staff meet with families and youth in a variety of locations and use multiple interactive learning approaches to teach people in the context of their lives.
EFNEP applies a social ecological approach and utilizes both direct education and community engagement strategies to teach, reinforce, and support changes that people are making in their lives. For ongoing success, EFNEP implements evidence based national guidelines, tracks and applies trend data of the nation's changing food and learning environment, and listens to and actively engages with stakeholders. Furthermore, EFNEP coordinators engage with and adopts findings from multi-state research, and works with federal partners and other stakeholders in developing and sharing best practices.
National Guidelines
- Dietary Guidelines
- Physical Activity Guidelines
- MyPlate
- US Food Safety Guidelines
- US Food Labeling Guidelines
Trend Data
- Policy, Systems and Environmental change data (data still being gathered - pending)
- Technology data (data still being gathered - pending)
Stakeholder Engagement
Multi-state Research and Program Development Projects
- EFNEP Related Research, Program Evaluation and Outreach
- Regional Nutrition Education and Obesity Prevention Centers of Excellence (RNECE) (includes EFNEP and SNAP-Ed projects)
- Community Nutrition Education (CNE) Logic Model
Best Practices for Low-income Nutrition Education
- SNAP-Ed Toolkit Obesity Prevention Interventions and Evaluation Framework
- Aligning and Elevating University-Based Low-Income Nutrition Education
- Best Practices in Nutrition Education for Low-Income Audiences