Nutrition educator honored for her work - Alberta Gaines

Nutrition Educator Honored for Her Work

A 42-year career of teaching others about food and nutrition qualifies Alberta Gaines as an expert on the subject of nutrition education. She knows what the problems are and the best ways to solve them, but she'd be the first to admit that achieving changes in people's diets and food buying habits is a slow process.

Gaines began her career as a vocational home economics teacher in a rural Tennessee high school. She joined the University of Tennessee Cooperative Extension Service in the mid-1950's, serving as an Extension home economist (then called a home demonstration agent) and 4-H Club advisor.

When the Expanded Food and Nutrition Education Program (EFNEP) began in Tennessee in 1969, Gaines joined the EFNEP staff in Shelby County--one of the first counties in the state to offer the program. She served as coordinator of Shelby County's Expanded Food and Nutrition Education Program for 13 years until she retired in 1983.

Has seen some gradual changes

During her 40-plus years of working with homemakers and young people, Gaines has seen some gradual changes occur.

"There's definitely more concern today about the effect of food on health,' she says, "and Southern cooking methods are finally changing. Families are learning to pan broil meats, to use less salt and fat in cooking vegetables, and to cut extra fat off meats. They're also eating more vegetables.'

In working with low-income families, Gaines has found that demonstrations are by far the best teaching technique. They are especially helpful in teaching people who have short attention spans or who cannot read.

Over the years, Gaines has given demonstrations in food stamp offices, WIC clinics, homes, and grocery stores. She has taken people to grocery stores and shown them how to do comparison shopping and unit pricing.

She has also become something of a local celebrity for her expertise in demonstrating how to prepare a variety of inexpensive, tasty dishes using beans, such as bean loaves, bean patties, and bean salads. She appeared in an educational television series about cooking with dried beans.

People believe what they see

Seeing and tasting are the best motivators, Gaines says. "You have to show people how to prepare something and then persuade them to sample it,' she explains. "Telling them about it and giving them a recipe won't work. They'll just shake their heads and say, "I'm not going to eat that.''

Gaines has found that seeing is believing when it comes to food buying, too. One example Gaines recalls is the struggle she had convincing the women enrolled in EFNEP that neckbones--which many families bought regularly because of their low cost--were actually a poor buy. By picking the meat off the bone, Gaines was able to show the women the small amount of meat they got for their money as compared to other types of meat.

Whatever the teaching technique used, says Gaines, interesting people in nutrition education is a challenge. "Young people are the most receptive,' she says. "Adults are receptive only when you address what they perceive they need.'

Feels community groups can help

She believes the Expanded Food and Nutrition Education Program, with its emphasis on one-to-one individualized instruction provided by program aides, is the ideal solution to providing food and nutrition information effectively to low-income homemakers. But the program is not available in every community, she says, and where available, is effective only to the extent that the program's workers are motivated.

Even where nutrition education programs exist, Gaines feels other persons in the community can and should help. Says Gaines, "Volunteers can help in community centers where USDA commodities are distributed by giving demonstrations about how to prepare the foods or by passing out preparation and storage information.

"Grocery stores can help by making more displays of items that are low-cost and nutritious and giving the displays high visibility.'

Gaines can cite dozens of instances where other organizations have helped her in her work with EFNEP, but two examples of worthwhile projects stand out.

Several years ago, the University of Tennessee School of Medicine offered to give women enrolled in the Shelby County EFNEP program complete physical examinations for $2.00 each. Since she suspected that some of her clients had health problems requiring special diets, Gaines readily accepted the offer and arranged for 96 women to be examined.

Two of the women were discovered to have servious illnesses, and many others were found to have nutrition-related health problems, such as calcium and vitamin deficiencies. These medical findings reinforced what Gaines had been teaching clients about the relationship between food and good health and also allowed her to target her teaching toward the specific nutritional deficiencies of the women.

As an outgrowth of this experience, the Red Cross, a Memphis television station, and a local drugstore chain now annually hold a health fair in Shelby County, conducting free medical screenings for area residents and particularly for those individuals with limited incomes.

Nutrition council provided leaflets

The Shelby County Nutrition Council is another group that contributed significantly to nutrition education in the community. Although it no longer exists, the council, consisting of individuals from food-related organizations and businesses, for many years developed monthly leaflets on food and nutrition topics for distribution to food stamp recipients.

The leaflets were prepared by a different council member each month on behalf of his or her organization and generally dealt with seasonal foods and how to buy and cook them. Gaines and her program aides distributed the leaflets every month at food stamp issuance offices and occasionally questioned food stamp clients to find out if they used any of the information.

The Nutrition Council continued this cooperative activity for 5 or 6 years with good results. Gaines cites this activity as one she would like to see re-initiated in her county as well as begun in other communities.

Still shares her expertise

Although now retired, Gaines continues to find ways to use her expertise in helping others in her community. She admits it's hard to say "no' to a request for help.

Her current volunteer projects include evaluating menus for day care centers; planning menus for a local church's youth activities; serving on the Hunger Task Force of the Episcopal Diocese of West Tennessee to provide technical assistance and services to food pantries, soup kitchens, and other emergency food providers. She also serves on the boards of the Red Cross and the Shelby County Extension Service's EFNEP Council.

Lately, she has become involved in the work of Habitat for Humanity, a volunteer organization that builds or rehabilitates homes for the poor. In addition to serving on the family selection committee, which chooses recipients for the organization's services, Gaines assists the recipient families with meal planning and food purchasing after they have moved into their new homes.

When the Food and Nutrition Service's Memphis field office staff held a workshop last year to introduce the Make Your Food Dollars Count nutrition education materials, Gaines volunteered to help register participants and perform other lastminute details.

Much to her surprise, during the workshop FNS' Southeast regional administrator David B. Alspach presented her with an award recognizing her many years of service in providing nutrition education to low-income Tennesseans.

For more information, contact:

Alberta Gaines 1039 Sheridan Street Memphis, Tennessee 38107 Telephone: (901) 272-3362

Photo: Although she is now retired, Alberta Gaines continues to help people in her community. Here, she visits a woman who has recently moved into a home built by Habitat for Humanity, a volunteer organization that builds or rehabilitates homes for the needy. Page 15: During a visit to a Memphis food stamp office, she talks with a woman about how careful buying can help her spend less on food.

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