Home Economics & ICAN (Ideas for Cooking and Nutrition)
Our county's Extension home economics program helps strengthen family life. In a rapidly changing world, the challenges facing individuals and families in our county are great. With A problem solving philosophy, we strive to develop programs to deal with complex issues facing local families. We are helping people build leadership and other skills. We teach through group training sessions and local programs and community projects. We are dedicated to solving community needs, concerns and issues.
Child Development & Family Life
The residents of San Juan County are represented by a County Advisory Board, which met to set priorities for the Extension programs to be presented. Their feelings were very strongly toward the need for parenting classes and elderly care. Statistics regarding San Juan County’s families show that there are many needs that can be addressed by Extension programs. According to the l990 census there are 22,726 families in San Juan County. San Juan County’s statistics of the categories of families are similar to the state statistics reported by the New Mexico Department of Children, Youth & Families.
Consumer Education
The current economic picture in San Juan County gives cause for concern about the future well being of consumers. People are living longer and our county has an increasing number of people who are experiencing difficulty in stretching their financial resources to meet their need and wants.
Extension Food & Nutrition Education Program
The l990 Bureau of Census reports that in San Juan County 24.l% of the population live below poverty level and in the same census of the l990 population the percentage which was l9 years of age and younger was 39.2% and 7.7% were 65 years and older. In many of the situations of home life we see the younger and the older population not eating a balanced diet, which leads to developmental deficiencies and a malnourished child hood or adult hood. Poor food choices, which leads to many problems such as obesity, diabetes and heart disease are prevalent in San Juan County. The concern about diabetes among the Native Americans is tremendous and the issues are being addressed by many agencies, of which we are glad to be among. Much education and information must be shared with our San Juan County population as it continues to rise with a projection of l08,432 in the year 2000, with 6% of the entire state’s population in our county. The population needs to gain more knowledge of how vitally important nutrition education is to them and their families. We are seeing a distinct need and desire to learn more about nutrition as we introduce the ICAN program in San Juan County. We are very serious about encouraging the residents to gain new insight of what following a good diet can do for them. We feel that the educational process will have a lasting impact on the county as we educate the young and the older citizens with nutritional information. Test scores in our schools will be affected and people will begin to have more self confidence and higher self esteem if they are eating right and feeling better about themselves. We feel that reaching the young citizens in San Juan County will provide an avenue to share the information with young families, grandparents, and eventually reach the majority of the county’s population.