Pima County has a densely populated metro region with unique challenges arising from the complexity of coordinating SNAP-Ed ECE program delivery through the UA Cooperative Extension, Pima (Pima Extension) Garden Kitchen, the Pima County Health Department subcontractor, and large ECE networks. Despite barriers, the Pima Extension expanded its capacity to support ECEs in FFY16, assessing more ECEs with Go NAP SACC than any other county in Arizona. Staff participated in at least 23 meetings and five training sessions with ECE leadership this year, reaching 21 sites.
The Pima Extension’s ECE efforts are uniquely mature in their comprehensive approach to programming, which combines Food Systems Strategy 2 (Gardens) with Early Childhood Strategies 14 and 15 and Direct Education (DE) Strategy 16. Each strategy has been addressed using practical, behaviorally-focused approaches that were reported to inspire ECE trainees:
“The food service training was a skills based training to make integrating more fruit and vegetables in menus at ECEs an…easier change to consider. Participants felt that they learned techniques that would be useful to them in completing their work at ECEs.”
Moreover, Pima Extension’s ECE activities were purposefully designed to promote related strategies to enhance the cumulative effect of PSE and DE programming:
