Introduction to Family and Consumer Science in Polk County

In this episode, we’ll explore what Family and Consumer Sciences is, how it can benefit you, and what we're doing right here in Polk County. Listen in as we dive into this fascinating field and discover how it can be integrated into your everyday life.

Transcript

Lindsey Edwards: 0:01

Hello everyone, and welcome to our first episode of the Extension Connection Podcast. I'm Lindsay Edwards, your Polk County Family and Consumer Science agent, and I'm here today to really introduce family and consumer science and explain what it is I do here and how I can help you if you were to need my area of expertise. So a lot of people don't really know what family consumer science is, and so when I explain it to people, I just say it's home economics. The name of home economics actually was changed to family consumer Science in 1994, and most people don't know that. They just think that home economics went by the wayside and doesn't exist. But there are still people like me out there that go to school. For family and consumer science or home ec can get a degree in that and, are able to help the community or help students learn those many life skills that they need. Just to give you a little background of family and consumer science, it actually began in the late 19th century, in some land-grant universities. It was started as a way to train women in the art of home skills. And again, it was originally called home economics. there was a, act that passed the Morell Act in 1862, which made it a standard course of study in the land grant universities. And the entire purpose of home economics was to help the overall wellbeing of families. Interestingly enough, the USDA even had a Bureau of Home Economics from 1923 to 1962, and their purpose was to help create research and focus on the home. So they came out with publications and actually videos, that were for the public to be able to do things like house planning. So they sent out a pamphlet one time that had. Examples of different farmhouses and it gave the building plans that you could use or how to lay out your kitchen properly. They also sent out like clothing patterns. they had publications on canning. It's really interesting actually. You can still go to the USDA National Agriculture Library. If you Google that, you can look up the Bureau of Home Economics and you can actually see their, publications and you can read through some of them. I went, on the website archive.org. And if you searched it on there too, you can see the actual printed copies and read the information. Now we do not as extension agents still support this information'cause it was from over half a century ago. And, we have more valid research now on things like canning practices. So if you do go back and read those, just be aware that we. We do not still consider that valid research, but, it is pretty interesting to go back and look at it and see all that they did and, what they gave to the United States. So with that, what originally was a way for women to learn how to care for the home and family has become so much more to so many people, a lot of people don't know this either, but it's still taught in a lot of schools and specifically in North Carolina, it falls under career and technical education and you will have family consumer science teachers that usually are teaching specialized areas. So they might be teaching child development classes or interior design classes, or apparel and textiles or foods and nutrition. Those all fall under the family and consumer science. They just take what used to be home ec and they break it up into categories and they spend the entire semester focusing on that one area. Now as an extension agent in North Carolina, our main focus is on improving human health and reducing chronic disease and illness with evidence-based programs. So most of what we're going to do is focus on nutrition, physical activity. promoting local foods, showing people how to do food preservation and food safety. and we are also focusing not only on students, but my main goal is to get this information out to anyone in Polk County that wants it. I'm reaching a lot of adults through this. So within the family consumer Science, North Carolina State Extension, like our core program. We're focusing mainly on food and how to stay healthy and how to take a holistic approach to health. And I'm, I'm reading some of these statements straight off of our family consumer science like program focus. Just to make sure that I'm getting it all right for you, so. What it says is that we're addressing other issues that affect physical, emotional, financial, environmental, and social of the families. These additional health related issues include relationships, parenting, positive youth development, healthy housing and family financial management. We're really focusing on is family as a whole. How can we keep you healthy? How can we keep your finances healthy? How can we help your family? To grow and be the best that they can possibly be. So we want to strive for long-term change through prevention, long-term impacts that address social, economic, and environment conditions. Also, things like equipment and building human capacity, individuals and families with the knowledge and skills to improve their individual and community quality of life. And then partnerships. So I'm always searching for local partnerships that are helping people. So I've had a really good successful few months working with the senior center and being able to go teach classes over there and help that group of people to learn things like I did the Mediterranean Diet, so we talked about how we can change our diet to. Reduce or risk of chronic diseases. And it is a evidence research based program that if you follow it, it has been proven to work and you are, it is proven to reduce, certain types of cancers and hypertension and reduce your risk of those things. We are always looking for partnerships in the community to be able to do that. I will be working with the Farmer's market this summer to do some cooking demonstrations there and get out to more of our community and be able to reach as many people as we possibly can through education because that is my main goal. Is to help people understand and educate through food. And sometimes that's skills based. Maybe I'm teaching you a skill on water bath, canning, and sometimes that's nutrition based. So maybe I'm teaching you about the Mediterranean diet and how to do that. It also can be physical activity based. so we are offering. A class called Matter of Balance, which is for people 65 and older, but it helps prevent falls or the fear of falling. And so within that curriculum, there are exercise that people are doing to help with their stability, There always are extra things that we're throwing in there to help get people moving. If you're interested in. Getting involved or doing some of my classes here at our center, we offer cooking classes usually, or cooking demonstrations, and usually those do have a cost. I try to keep'em as minimal as possible to cover my cost of food, because I have to have that money to be able to demonstrate what we're doing. But. I usually will have classes, size ranges, 10 to 12 people. And if you wanna know more information about any classes that we're offering here, you can sign up for our newsletter if you just Google Polk Cooperative Extension North Carolina, that'll bring you up to our webpage. And if you scroll down to the bottom of that. There's a section that has, let's stay in touch and you can actually subscribe by email to our email list. We send out a monthly email flyer that has information from each of our extension agents, but then it also, any time we have new classes, they'll send out an email on that as well. So it is a great resource for you to have, but it also. We'll keep you up to date with what classes we're offering. Not only mine classes, but all the other classes that our other extension agents in the Polk County office would be offering. Another thing that you can do is I have partnered with a, like I said, the senior center or the library or the farmer's market. If you ever see that I'm out and about doing things around those areas, usually those, classes have been paid for, or those demonstrations have been paid for, and they're usually free to watch and. participate in. So I encourage you to go out and do some of those. If you ever see me out and about, come up and ask me questions. If you have food questions or cooking questions or canning questions, you're always welcome to call into the office or email me or just ask me. I'm here to help and to help people have more knowledge in the kitchen. I also, we'll be doing some canning classes. Usually in the summertime I'll be doing those'cause that's when most people, do a majority of their canning. I'm a certified Serve Safe instructor, which most restaurants need. So I'm planning on doing classes for people who wanna get certified and serve safe, which. Food safety and sanitation is extremely important in a home kitchen. And yes, that program is for, is made for restaurants, but it really would be very useful and helpful for anyone that would want to come to that class just because it gives you a wealth of information and knowledge on how to prevent food safe or foodborne illness and keep food safe and make sure that you're. Creating the best product that you can. I can do that. I also, if you just have general questions about like food safety and sanitation, I'm more than willing to answer any of those. If you need help with like food budgeting or saving money at the grocery store, like how do I save money when groceries are so high? I can give you some tips and tricks for that. As well, but I'm just, I'm really here as a community resource and I wanna be here to help people. So if there's something that you think, oh, maybe she can give me a call or send me an email, and if I can't, I will try to connect you with the person that can help you with that. I just wanna make sure that we, I do tell people because I do sometimes get questions that, I'm not really. I can't give the best answer or maybe the answer that they're looking for because we are research based or evidence based. So I am always looking for, I'm looking through the research to make sure the answers that I'm giving are correct. For example, with Canning, we use the National Center for Home Food Preservation. Recipes and they have been tested in a lab and we know that they're safe. So those are the recipes that I would give out to people if they ask me for recipes. But that doesn't cover every single type of fruit or vegetable that people might wanna be canning. And so sometimes I'll get questions about a specific one, and I can't really give advice on a specific one because it doesn't, it's not researched or it's. Not, it has not been researched yet. So I will do my best to give everyone an answer for things, like that. But again, we are, we're giving out the, most recent research that we can. Healthy Homes is another area that I can help with, and that's things like, how can I go through a house and make sure it's safe for someone that's elderly or to prevent falls or. Maybe I wanna do radon testing. How do I go about doing that or carbon monoxide testing, or how can I prevent mold in my house? Those things also fall, into my wheelhouse. And after the hurricane, after Hurricane Helene, I know that, everyone is trying to figure out how to do some of those things, but also to become more prepared for natural disasters. And that also. Falls under me. So I'm, I am planning on doing some more things about like, how to build up your pantry, and be more prepared for natural disasters. And I am, gonna get those things out to the community soon. But I just, I'm really excited to be in this position and I hope that I can help you and be a wealth of knowledge to you. Please contact me if you have any questions and, I'm really excited that we're starting this podcast. I think there's gonna be a wealth of information, how it will be laid out, and I know this is in the introduction as well, is that once a week, basically one of the extension agents will put out a podcast. So I will be, for the most part, the first week of every month. And then,, we will also have our four H agent posting and our livestock equine agent posting. Once a week. So it, so if I'm like the first week, then four H will be the second week and, equine livestock will be, and forage will be the third week. this podcast is meant to be something that can help you and something useful, and I hope you. Come along with us and with me as I explore the many ways in which I can help grow the community and shape our families and households to be healthy, happy and thriving. Thanks for joining me today.