Working Together to Provide Nutrition Education

Members of the Bhutanese refugee and asylee community participated in an interactive nutrition education workshop this winter. This six-week series took place in Riverdale, MD at an apartment complex serving many Suburban Washington Resettlement Center (SWRC) clients. Students participated in a range of engaging activities, such as preparing meals (eg canned chili, broccoli soup, “powerhouse pizzas”) and going on a mock grocery shopping trip. Using a combination of demonstrations, lecture, and role-playing, this workshop sought to teach students about portion sizes and balanced diets, in addition to how to plan, shop, and save on groceries.

The Expanded Food and Nutrition Education Program (EFNEP) in Prince George’s County, Maryland (MD) conducted this workshop, with help from the Ethiopian Community Development Council, Inc. (ECDC) and the International Rescue Committee (IRC) in Silver Spring, MD. Throughout this series, collaborators gained participant feedback and tailored curricular materials to the interests, baseline knowledge, and literacy and language levels of the Bhutanese participants. These lessons served as a pilot to a second nutrition workshop that will take place in February.  The workshop coordinators hope to continue this partnership and to extend the program to other SWRC refugee and aslyee families.


Photo taken by Amanda Pourciau, Ethiopian Community Development Council (ECDC)

To learn more about PG County EFNEP: http://www.princegeorges.umd.edu/FamilyConsumerScience/EFNEP/index.cfm