Family and Community Health Sciences (FCHS) helps people stay healthy, enjoy life, be active, and reduce health care costs. Many of today's health problems--obesity, heart disease, diabetes, and cancer--can be reduced through good nutrition and a healthy life style. FCHS encourages today's busy families and individuals to learn more and make personal choices to improve health. FCHS combines research and practical advice to improve your health for a better tomorrow.

• Practical Ways to Trim High Grocery Prices - During these times of high food and high fuel prices, you might be asking yourself "Where can I cut back to save money?" A smart spending plan at the grocery store is one place where most people can save some extra money. It just takes time to practice and to develop a spending plan for the grocery store if you haven't done it before.

Key Initiatives

• Get Moving - Get Healthy New Jersey - The mission of this program is to improve the health of individuals, families and communities. Get Moving - Get Healthy New Jersey encourages a healthy lifestyle, especially healthy eating and physical activity, through educational programs, a website, publications and targeted marketing campaigns. Rutgers Cooperative Extension works in partnership with state and local governments, research institutions, professional groups, corporations, and private organizations to achieve this mission.

Community & Professional Programs

Contact your local FCHS professional in your Rutgers New Jersey Agricultural Experiment Station (NJAES) Cooperative Extension county office for more information on how to schedule a program for a group or find out where in the community it's being offered.

• Small Steps to Health & Wealth
• School Wellness Training
• Other Topics and Descriptions »

Conferences

Obesity is a fast-growing health issue affecting children and adolescents across the nation and here at home. The FCHS Department responded to this problem with the Children's Health Summit: Fighting Back Against Childhood Obesity project. The FCHS Department, along with agency and community partners, implemented a unique, collaborative solution aimed at raising awareness, providing education and effecting workable strategies for preventing obesity in children and families in our communities.

The Children's Health Summit is an all day professional training conference addressing childhood obesity. The Summits are comprehensive educational forums, featuring workshops, exhibits and focused networking opportunities to further extend the outreach and education. In December 2003, the first Summit was piloted and tested in Cape May County. The Children's Health Summit project has expanded, and there have been nine Children's Health Summits. Read more about the Children's Health Summit project (134k PDF) and how we are "Fighting Back Against Childhood Obesity". Plan to attend our next Summit. Call your Cooperative Extension county office for details, or call Marilou Rochford, Cooperative Extension Cape May County, FCHS Department at (609) 465-5115 ext 609.

Nutrition Education for Limited Income Audiences

The following programs work with organizations to teach limited resource individuals to improve their diets and increase food security.

• Expanded Food and Nutrition Program (EFNEP)
• Food Stamp Nutrition Education Program (FSNEP)

Community & Professional Resources

• Smart Food Choices Fact Sheet Series - This fact sheet series includes health tips and practical nutrition/food safety information in short, one or two pages that consumers can read quickly and educators can use as handouts for classes. Fact sheet titles include: Grains are Good; Flavorful Fruits; Consuming Milk is Good; Veggies Foster Health; Eat Lean Protein; Safe Food for Families, and more.
• From Our Farms Curriculum - A fun-filled project that teaches children and their families about the importance of good nutrition, the value of local agriculture and the role farms play in enriching our communities and the environment.
• Healing Herbs: Safety and Effectiveness Curriculum - Discussion of safety issues, federal regulations and effectiveness of medicinal herbs. Also highlights several specific herbs. PowerPoint presentation, speaker notes, evaluation tools. Available on CD-ROM.

Publications

• Let's Eat! Healthier Snacks and Parties (150k PDF)
• Smart Food Choices - Balancing Food & Physical Activity From a Family Perspectives (175k PDF)
• Smart Food Choices - Eating Out: Finding Healthier Choices (159k PDF)
• More Food, Nutrition, and Health Publications »

Web Presentations

• Carbohydrates: The Good, the Bad and the Ugly - Learn about carbohydrates' (sugars & starches) role in nutrition and health
• The DASH Eating Plan - Lowering Your Blood Pressure - Learn about how this eating plan can improve your blood pressure and health
• Fad Diets: What is the Truth? - If only there was a quick and easy way to lose weight. Learn about the benefits and risks of fad diets.
• More Food, Nutrition, and Health Presentations »

Exhibits/Displays

Tabletop exhibits with handouts available for loan. Contact your local FCHS professional in your Rutgers Cooperative Extension county office for more information on how to borrow. Displays include:

• Do You Know What You're Drinking? - This interactive display illustrates the calorie, sugar and caffeine content of 13 beverages. People guess the nutritional profile and then flip-up the cover sheet for the answers. A handout, Beverage All Stars Line Up (88k PDF), goes with the display.
• Which Fish Are Safe to Eat? - Fish are important in a healthy diet. However, some fish may contain methylmercury or other harmful chemicals at levels high enough to be a health risk. The purpose of the display focuses on how high-risk people - women who may become pregnant, pregnant women, nursing mothers and young children - can get the positive health benefits from eating fish and shellfish, while minimizing risk.
• Choosing Sensible Portion Sizes--What is Right for You? (3MB PowerPoint file)
  2006 edition is a display using 9 PowerPoint slides that can be downloaded by the viewer to create this display.

Assessment Tools

• Strong Bones for a Lifetime - determine your risk for developing osteoporosis
• BMI Calculator - This tool will tell you your Body Mass Index (BMI), an indicator of healthy or unhealthy weight.
• MyPyramid.gov - This government web site has a variety of helpful tools to help you and your family eat a healthful diet, including meal plans.