Land Grant University System Culture of Health Awards were announced last week at the National Health Outreach Conference. As a part of Extension's Well Connected Communities initiative the awards are made possible by Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and focus on health equity and inclusion, address one or more of the social determinants of health, and successfully engage youth-adult partnerships. Monica Hobbs Vinluan, Senior Program Officer for the RWJF, presented the awards in 3 categories.
- Land Grant University: University of Arizona's Tucson Village Farm's FARMacy Program, to help underserved members of the Tucson community learn farm-to-table nutrition.
- Adult Volunteer: Jacqueline “Jackie” Rhode of South Dakota, Crow Creek Sioux Tribe (pictured top left), serves as the Community Champion for the newly formed Crow Creek Community Wellness Coalition. Jackie assisted a local school with Smarter Lunchrooms, a program to encourage healthy choices.
- Youth Volunteer: Pearl Daskam, a 16-year-old from Ubly, Michigan (pictured bottom left), is the co-founder of a project called “Meating” the Need for Our Village. To address the a need in her community at the local food pantry where she volunteered, Pearl applied her knowledge of how to grow food. Starting at only age 12, too young to drive or hold jobs, she and her team began to raise chickens and donate the meat, and then added milk and eggs, to increase sources of high-quality protein for under-served populations.
Save the Date - Binational US and Mexico Extension Conference The Second Binational Extension Conference will be held in Las Cruces, New Mexico, November 19-20, 2019. With the participation of USDA, APLU, U.S. Land-grant and Mexican Universities, Mexican Secretariat of Agriculture and Rural Development (SADER), this conference aims to boost programs of university-based Extension in the border regions of the U.S. and Mexico. The conference is a product of the 2016 MOU between APLU and SAGARPA, Mexico's Secretariat of Agriculture, Livestock, Rural Development, Fisheries and Food, for increased collaboration in agriculture. This will be the second time that such a collection of U.S. universities, their Mexican counterparts and both federal governments will focus on the unique challenges and opportunities of food and agricultural systems in the border economy. Topics will include development and delivery of Extension programs, youth and community development, agricultural innovations, and case studies of binational Extension partnerships. Mexico will be holding three regional domestic Extension workshops this year and the Binational Extension Conference will also serve as an opportunity to discuss outputs from their regional meetings. Registration details will be provided in June.
Education and Workforce Development RFA - The Agriculture and Food Research Initiative - Education and Workforce Development (EWD) focuses on developing the next generation of research, education, and extension professionals in the food and agricultural sciences. In FY 2019, EWD invites applications in five areas: professional development for agricultural literacy; training of undergraduate students in research and extension; fellowships for predoctoral candidates; fellowships for postdoctoral scholars, and a new program for agricultural workforce training. The close date for applications is Thursday, August 22, 2019. See EWD Request for Applications for specific details, https://nifa.usda.gov/funding-opportunity/agriculture-and-food-research-initiative-education-workforce-development.
