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Families Cook Together With Operation Frontline

In 2004, more than a quarter of Petersburg children under the age of 17 lived below the poverty line – twice the state average. More than half of the children in Petersburg’s schools received free or reduced-price lunches that same year. Virginia Cooperative Extension has introduced a nutrition education program for limited-resource families in Petersburg to help curtail the greater chance of food insecurity and hunger that comes with high poverty rates.

A grant from the Transforming Virginia Cooperative Extension Through Interdisciplinary Programming effort, which helps Extension agents cross traditional program area lines, funded the program. In Petersburg, family and consumer sciences agent Gina Kindred, 4-H agent Sharon Mallory, and Family Nutrition Program assistants Annie Savage and Shirley Brown collaborated with local volunteers to teach 35 parents and children how to prepare healthy, low-cost meals.

They offered the Share Our Strength’s Operation Frontline Side by Side curriculum for two, four-week sessions. “During each class, we covered topics such as food safety, menu planning, high-fiber foods, low-fat foods, and how to stretch your food dollar,” explains Kindred.

Children ages 8 to 14 prepared flaky chicken fingers, roasted vegetable soup, fruit smoothies, and apple crisps with their parents.

“The most rewarding moments came when we introduced the children to ingredients they wouldn’t normally eat, such as eggplant, and watched them discover that they actually liked it,” Kindred says. “After each class, we provided each family with a grocery bag full of food items used in that day’s meal.”

The Petersburg Department of Social Services, Central Virginia Food Bank, and Petersburg Weed and Seed Program partnered for the course. “Two chefs in the community – one from the Fort Lee military base and another from Norfolk General Hospital – volunteered to do the food preparation for the class meals,” Kindred adds.

The Spotsylvania County Extension Office delivered the course to 32 additional participants last year. According to Victoria Clark, district coordinator for Extension’s Family Nutrition Program and state coordinator for Operation Frontline, Extension plans to expand the program in select Virginia localities in coming years.