Off topic- cooking with WIC

[cookderosa]

This is off topic, but there's always great brain juice coming from this forum, so I thought I'd post here for some feedback!

In my MS Nutrition program, I'm taking a course that requires developing a community health program. The program, though fictitious, should be able to be implemented with a little elbow grease in real life should the student choose to do so. I just might take that challenge.

I'll give you the super short summary of my project. I'm developing a cooking class that would be taught by local restaurant chefs. The class would be 1 night about once/month. The students would be WIC (Women, Infants, and Children) moms who have children under age 5.

As you may/may not know, a WIC program participant is given vouchers each month for some amount of food. This is not food stamps, it's rather a supplement to the family's groceries. The goal of WIC is to bring whole grains, milk, fish, vegetables, plant based protein, etc to children. There are other things WIC does for children under 2, but my class is for moms who have children between ages 2-5.

At the class, the chefs would demo how to make foods that maximize their WIC food items. Some foods are very easy to use (cereal, peanut butter, milk) but other foods can create a challenge (dried beans or peas, whole vegetables, etc) and in REAL LIFE I've observed people simply "skip" using the items they don't know how to use or they just throw them away/give away. The chefs would prepare a few dishes using those more challenging items, they'd all eat what is made, and the moms could then go home and prepare these simple and inexpensive dishes. The dishes will be kid-friendly and encourage scratch cooking.

In order to make this project realistic, there has to be a recipe database. I'm going to write a cookbook of WIC-friendly recipes/dishes. Maybe 50 or so recipes, and the mom would receive a free copy of the cookbook.

FWIW, I love this homework assignment. I do believe, that in time, I could initiate a program like this - at least locally.

If you have ideas, tips, suggestions, feedback, etc., I'd love to hear them! If you are familiar with WIC, tell me some of the things that might help make this successful! Also, I need a name for my moc cookbook I'm all ears!

[sanantone]

This website let's you search for recipes by ingredient.

Allrecipes - Recipes and cooking confidence for home cooks everywhere

[marianne202]

Jennifer,

Check out this link and video: EFNEP - Expanded Food and Nutrition Education Program

I know when we first moved here to our little town and we had our extension service come out and identify all our fruit trees, they offered us a similar program to this since our kids were 4 & 9 and my husband had lost his job. They sent someone out to to talk to us about growing our own food, cooking, canning and preserving foods. That might be a twist to add to your program for rural areas. We did learn a lot about proper canning and preserving foods which we still do. I say this as my food dehydrator is running with apples from our trees and as I look at dozens of canned apples, peppers, salsa and spaghetti sauce all from our garden this year! Good luck! I wish my classes this semester had as fun a project to do! No such luck though.

[LaterBloomer]

Some flavorful soup recipes could use the beans and the vegetables. (All parts of the vegetables if you think a teaching about soup stock isn't too much.) Stir fries are fast, and can be nutritious. Since you're talking about women and children, the emphasis should be fast, and easy. With flavorful a close second. (Yes, second. Fast and easy are tied.) Remember that your cooking skills (cutting, etc.) probably won't be shared by most students, so keep those things easy, too. Maybe something like hummus so the little ones will get vegetables and beans. Sounds like a truly useful project. Good luck.