Americans are getting older. By 2030, the people age 65 and older are expected to make up 20 percent of the United States population, according to the National Center for State Courts Center for Elders and the Courts.

Despite the notable increase of senior adults in America, health professionals have noticed significant financial, systemic, and other barriers to accessing and consuming healthy foods.

In order to combat these issues, the Virginia Cooperative Extension Family Nutrition Program developed the Healthy Eating and Staying Active as We Age curriculum. The program is a practice-based curriculum for older adults with low incomes that focuses on nutrition and physical activity.

The program, which has helped thousands of Virginians improve health measures such as eating more fruits and vegetables, was recently recognized by the National Extension Association for Family and Consumer Science. The curriculum won first place in the southern region and third place nationally in the SNAP-Ed/Expanded Food and Nutrition Education Program's educational program award category.

“We identified seniors with low incomes as a priority population for a few reasons”, said Elena Serrano, director of the Virginia Family Nutrition Program and professor in the Department of Human Nutrition, Foods, and Exercise. “They are at higher risk of food insecurity and chronic disease, they face a lot of different health and social changes, and they face lower participation rates in nutrition assistance programs.”

When developing the curriculum, Serrano said the Family Nutrition Program consulted experts in the aging nutrition field and identified nutrition concerns such as food education and access. She added that there was an emphasis on adult learning principles and making the course material engaged and hands-on.

The curriculum is made up of nine, 60-minute lessons — nutrition and/or food resource management, food safety, food preparation, and physical activity — and has been implemented statewide by the Family Nutrition Program’s adult nutrition educators since its development in 2020. In that time, 580 series have been taught, reaching more than 2,500 people.

In addition, feedback from participants and educators has shown statistically significant improvement in the following areas:

  • Consumption of fruits
  • Consumption of vegetables
  • Consumption of dairy
  • Consumption of lean protein
  • Lowered consumption of sugar-sweetened beverages
  • Perceived access to food
  • Perceived access to opportunities to be physically active 
  • Frequency shopping with a grocery list

“We would say it’s a practice-tested curriculum at this point,” said Serrano. “We know that it works. We know our educators like it. We know the participants like it. We have evaluation data, but it's not at the evidence-based level, which is really important for nutrition intervention.”

As the curriculum continues to be implemented and collects evidence, the Family Nutrition Program aims to work with communities to improve access to affordable, nutritious foods.

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