A very small team has a big impact in Rockland County

Food and Nutrition, August, 1993 by Cynthia Tackett

It's early Wednesday morning at the Haverstraw Soup Kitchen in Rockland County, New York, and more than 50 people have gathered here for a hot breakfast.

Preparing waffles for a crowd is no small job, but the volunteers who run this church basement operation do it cheerfully. They know these people need their help, and before leaving at 8:30 a.m. to go about their daily lives, they will also prepare lunch and dinner.

This morning Rhoda Appel and Nancy Sielecki are here; they have been since 6:30 a.m. Appel, a home economist, and Sielecki, a registered dietitian, come here often to talk about food and nutrition, distribute helpful information, and provide assistance in any way they can.

Their presence is welcome and comfortable. As they engage in easy conversation with people singly and in small groups, Appel and Sielecki strengthen the rapport they have worked hard to establish.

They repeat this scenario every day in senior centers, WIC clinics, soup kitchens, emergency shelters, Head Start centers, supermarkets, and just about any other place they can think of to get across their message about food and health.

Part of a special educational effort

Appeal and Sielecki are part of Rockland County's PAN (Program of Assistance for Nutrition) Project. PAN is a comprehensive, well-planned nutrition education effort which targets the demographics of Rockland County for maximum impact.

One of its strengths is sensitivity to the ethnic beliefs and preferences of the low-income families who live there. The smallest county in New York, Rockland is also one of the most culturally diverse. About an hour's drive north of New York City, the county is home to many groups, including sizeable Haitian and Hispanic populations as well as a large Hasidic community. Hasidic Jews practice a form of orthodox Judaism and have strict dietary rules.

Concentrating on the five lowest income areas, PAN's goal is to reach all of the county's food stamp recipients and applicants with information that can help them improve their nutritional status.

Project staff work to increase their clients' understanding of the role of diet in good health, inform them of available food and nutrition programs, and help them develop useful consumer skills. Team members make special efforts to reach those food stamp recipients who are homeless, elderly, or homebound.

Thousands reached in many settings

Begun in 1986, the PAN Project was originally developed in conjunction with a nutrition education campaign initiated by the Governor's office. When the state shifted its focus from nutrition education to outreach in 1989, the Rockland County Department of Social Services decided to continue its nutrition education project as a local effort.

Funded by the New York State Food Stamp Program with federal matching funds from USDA's Food and Nutrition Service (FNS), PAN is the only nutrition education project of its kind in the state.

Last year alone, PAN reached as many as 26,000 food stamp families. That's an impressive number, especially considering the size of the project team. In addition to Rhoda Appel, who is project coordinator, there are two other full-time home economists--Judy Weinberger and Harriet Lopaty. Nancy Sielecki works with the project 20 hours a week.

The PAN team's many accomplishments last year included:

* providing individual nutrition and consumer counseling to 218 people on an ongoing basis;

* making appropriate referrals for more than 1,100 people who needed other kinds of help in addition to nutrition education;

* holding 35 nutrition and consumer skills workshops;

* distributing nearly 44,000 pieces of written information;

* setting up and staffing a nutrition booth at local grocery stores 1 day a week; and

* engaging in a host of other highly visible activities all designed to encourage the county's poorest residents to think in terms of good nutrition and good health.

Not as easy to measure but equally significant is the way the staff tailors activities and materials to the cultural, social, and dietary preferences of each population and to the needs of the individuals they counsel.

Networking gives project visibility

"To begin a project like this, you have to know your county very well," says Appel. "You definitely have to do a needs assessment. Beyond that, you have to develop a network with all the poverty agencies in the county. Because we are a part of the Department of Social Services, we are able to reach out to a lot of people. This is very important."

Sielecki agrees that networking is crucial. "The majority of our clients are either referrals or people we reach out to in soup kitchens, senior centers, or any of the different places we go in the community," she says.

Networking gives the PAN staff high visibility among other poverty agencies and, more importantly, among food stamp clients. "Clients get used to seeing us everywhere and they start to trust us," says Sielecki. "When they are ready, they will ask for help."

Indeed, gaining that trust is the important first step in counseling. "When we get referrals, it's because the clients want our help," says Appel. "The caseworker or other referral source has told them, 'We have home economists who can help you with budgeting and money management, and we have a nutritionist. Do you want this help?'"