Learning From Nutrition Volunteer

Mary Zybura, food program specialist at the Food and Nutrition Service's Concord, New Hampshire, field office, has had a busy week.

On Moday, she worked on authorizing food stores to accept food stamps. Tuesday, she reviewed food stamp quality control cases. Wednesday, she met with respresentatives from farmers' markets. Thursday, she conducted store visits.

It's Friday morning now, and Zybura is talking about her experiences as a volunteer last year for a project sponsored by the American Home Economics Association (AHEA). The project places nutritionists, dietitians, and home economists in Head Start centers to provide nutrition education to young children.

Administered by AHEA throughout the country, the volunteer consultant program is an outstanding example of cooperation between private and public institutions. Through it Head Start and the AHEA work together to improve children's nutritional wellbeing. And volunteers like Mary Zybura demonstrate that individual contributions and personal commitment can make a difference.

One of 18 volunteers in New Hampshire

Zybura, a registered dietitian with a master's degree in elementary education, was 1 to 18 volunteers working in New Hampshire Head Start centers last year. She and the other volunteers were recruited and trained by Valerie long, a cooperative extension specialist in food and nutrition, who began the project in her state 3 years ago by writing a grant request to AHEA headquarters in Washington, D.C.

As Long explains, the project grew out of a need for more nutrition education at Head Start. "Nutrition is an integral part of Head Start," she says, "but the program cannot afford to pay for nutrition education consultants. So Head Start entered into an agreement with AHEA whereby AHEA would develop a training curriculum and recruit professionals.

"AHEA receives funding for the project from the private sector," she adds, "so there is no cost to Head Start."

When AHEA approved Long's request. She began accepting applications. "It was a selective process," she say. " I looked at education, volunteer experience, and what an applicant hoped to get out of the project. I was looking for people who were interested in working with the low-income population and who were creative in dealing with limited resources in a program like Head Start."

Long says that in the project's first year in her state, approximately half of the volunteers were dietitians with traditional, clinical backgrounds. The other half were home economics teachers. The second year, there were far more dietitians. While the project is not operating in New Hampshire this year, Long hopes to see it start up again in the future.

Recruits received special training

After selecting the volunteers, Long would conduct a 2- or 32-day training session. The training, for which volunteers received professional credits, acquainted them with the project and Head Start and focused on the nutritional needs of children, ways children like to learn, strategies for working with parents, and creative teaching methods.

After the training was completed Long would match up volunteers with Head Start centers, usually by geographic area. The volunteers would then contact their assigned centers to set up appointments with the directors. In joining, volunteers committed themselves to 30 hours of teaching. They visited their assigned center to conduct nutrition sessions approximately once a month.

"We weren't interested in people who just wanted the professional development credits provided as part of the training," says Long. "We recruited people who wanted to help, who had good skills, and who could give a lot to the program--people like Mary Zybura.

"Mary was perfect. She has wonderful skills. and the project gave her the opportunity to work directly with clientele--she is the typical profile of someone who has a very interesting job but one that doesn't provide this direct contact."

Zybura was indeed an ideal volunteer for the program. In the 1970's she taught first through third grades in Rhode Island. In 1978 she became a registered dietitian and, since joining FNS in 1979, has worked with USDA's food assistance programs, including the Food Stamp Program. This was especially helpful for her as a volunteer because the families of many Head Start children receive food stamps.

Beyond that, Zybura met Long's most stringent criterion--she wanted to help. "This was an opportunity to use my expertise as a teacher and a nutritionist to help low-income people," she says, explaining why she volunteered. "Teaching and working with children come very naturally to me, and I've always thought nutrition education needs to begin with little people."

Worked closely with Head Start staff

Zybura and other New Hampshire volunteers worked closely with the staff of their assigned centers. They coordinated their lessons with the instructors; they worked with the cooks on nutrition and food safety issues; and they planned their lessons to parallel New Hampshire's Head Start nutrition curriculum. They wanted to make sure their teaching was consistent with the curriculum and that the learning experience was a lasting one for the children.