Yerxa speaks with BDN about cooking classes to fight hunger
Kathryn Yerxa, of the University of Maine Cooperative Extension, spoke with the Bangor Daily News for the article, “In Maine, cooking classes tackle the root causes of hunger.” Maine has developed a network of programs that provide nutrition education to low-income Mainers who are at risk of food insecurity, according to the article. There are two primary federal programs funded through the U.S. Department of Agriculture that generally oversee nutrition education efforts in the state: the Expanded Food and Nutrition Education Program, or EFNEP, which is offered through UMaine Extension and focused on nutrition education for low-income families with children; and the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program Education, or SNAP-Ed, which provides nutrition education for low-income adults that qualify for federal assistance in general. “In Maine, we have a very small nutrition education landscape,” said Yerxa, state coordinator at EFNEP. “The reality is all of these programs are responding to a huge need in Maine.” The programs have been around for decades — EFNEP just celebrated its 50th anniversary, and SNAP-Ed started in the late 1980s — but their offerings adjust to meet the changing needs, the BDN reported. “There has been an increase in more convenience food, and an almost a loss of cooking skills because it is not taught or practiced in schools as it used to be,” Yerxa said. To address the need for basic cooking education, EFNEP and Maine SNAP-Ed partnered with the Good Shepherd Food Bank to offer classes through Cooking Matters starting in 2010. Fiddlehead Focus also published the BDN report.