Expanded Food and Nutrition Education Program (EFNEP) | Extension

Local impact by Extension

Taking charge of health, one lesson, one meal, one family at a time.

In Nevada, the Expanded Food and Nutrition Education Program is offered by University of Nevada, Reno Extension - a unit of Nevada’s Land Grant University - to engage adults and youth to boost nutrition through building basic skills.

Participants learn how to:

Be more active
Save money on groceries
Make healthy food choices
Safely handle food
Read food labels
Plan meals

The program is presented by Extension professionals in classrooms and community centers in Clark and Nye counties. Program classes are 90 minutes long and are taught weekly for nine weeks, with additional community activities and events offered to ensure the program reaches as many people as possible.

Part of a nationwide effort

This Extension program in Nevada is part of the nationwide Expanded Food and Nutrition Education Program, led and funded by the U.S. Department of Agriculture's National Institute of Food and Agriculture (USDA/NIFA).

This federal program was the first nationwide nutrition education program for low-income populations. It remains at the forefront of nutrition education efforts to reduce the nutrition insecurity of low-income families and youth today. It operates in every state, the District of Columbia, and the six U.S. territories through the local 1862 and 1890 Land-Grant Universities (LGUs).

The program uses education to support participants’ efforts toward self-sufficiency, nutritional health, and well-being. It combines hands-on learning, applied science, and program data to ensure program effectiveness, efficiency, and accountability.

Annual data confirms program graduates stretch their food dollars farther, improve their nutrition practices, increase their physical activity levels, handle food more safely, and improve their diets.

Routinely, 80 percent or more of families participating in the program report living at or below 100 percent of the federal poverty line, and nearly 70 percent indicate being of minority status. This is important because chronic disease and poor health disproportionately affect minority and low-income audiences.