Expanded Food and Nutrition Education Program (EFNEP)

The NJ Expanded Food and Nutrition Education Program serves audiences not served by the NJ Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (NJ SNAP-Ed). In Fiscal Year 2016, we delivered classes to 1,579 adults and 8,362 youth. Racial breakdowns for adults and youth, respectively, were: 36% and 26% Black; 47% and 48% Hispanic; 37% and 28% White; 1% and 5% Asian; 0% and 1% Native Hawaiian or Other Pacific Islanders; 1% and 1% American Indian or Alaskan Native; and, 38% of youth identify themselves as multi-racial. For census purposes, 100% of New Jersey is categorized as urban. Ninety-one percent of our adult education efforts occurred in central cities of over 50,000; 0% occurred in suburbs of over 50,000 people; and 9% occurred in towns and cities of 10,000–50,000 people.

We have employed approximately 11 educators to disseminate the nutrition education lessons; 369 volunteers assisting in programmatic delivery. Again, the EFNEP program hires paraprofessionals who reflect the diversity of our participants with 9% of our paraprofessionals being African American, 27% being Hispanic, and 82% Caucasian.

From a survey administered to 907 (57%) of the adults who completed our program by attending 6 or more classes:

45% more often planned meals in advance
39% more often compared prices when shopping
35% less often ran out of food at the end of the month
39% more often used a grocery list when shopping
37% more often thought about healthy food choices when deciding what to feed their families
43% more often prepared food without adding salt
51% more often used the "Nutrition Facts" on food labels to make healthy choices
36% reported that their children ate breakfast more often
29% more often followed the recommended practices of not allowing meat and dairy foods to sit out for more than two hours
42% more often followed the recommended practice of not thawing foods at room temperature

For additional information regarding New Jersey EFNEP, please contact: