ANTHC brings food and fun to nine Alaska communities
July 15, 2017
Healthy eating is one of the building blocks for a healthy life, and learning new recipes is a great way to keep healthy eating fun and delicious.
To help introduce fresh ways to learn new recipes to statewide communities, Alaska Native Tribal Health Consortium’s Health Promotion program was awarded a competitive grant from the U.S. Department of Agriculture for Food Distribution Program Nutrition Education in 2016. This funding allows grantees to provide nutrition education services to Food Distribution Program on Indian Reservation (FDPIR) participants. ANTHC’s FDPIR provides a monthly supply of nutritional food to more than 700 people in 18 rural Alaska communities.
To promote healthy eating habits, encourage the use of more fruits and vegetables and share new recipes, these ANTHC programs hosted rural nutrition education events that include recipe contests in nine FDPIR communities.
At each event, community members of all ages participated in fun games that highlight the nutritional and physical benefits of hunting, fishing, gathering, growing and eating traditional foods, as well as healthy food options that are available at the grocery store or in a FDPIR package. Participants were also encouraged to enter a cooking contest to create a dish that combined at least one traditional Alaska Native food and at least one FDPIR packaged fruit or vegetable. Recipes were judged based on taste, appearance and number of fruits and vegetables used. A community potluck took place after each recipe contest and included a food demonstration from ANTHC’s Wellness and Prevention department staff, along with local dance group entertainment.
Nutrition education and potluck events were held in Kwethluk, Kalskag, Buckland, Kiana, Craig, Klawok, Hydaburg, Metlakatla and Haines. A total of 337 people attended the nine community events. Every community expressed gratitude for the opportunity to come together to share traditional knowledge and have conversations about nutrition and wellness in a culturally relevant way.
These events truly were a collaborative effort. Local FDPIR Tribal agency representatives helped coordinate and enlist volunteers, encouraged dance groups to participate, and assisted in securing venues and planning logistics of activities. In many instances, the schools allowed usage of their buildings to host the cooking contests and school cooks helped to prepare food. ANTHC’s Environmental Health and Engineering staff in the communities also helped secure lodging, transportation and assisted with cleanup. Many thanks to all those who helped to make these nutrition education events and potlucks a success. n
For more information about the Traditional Foods and Nutrition from ANTHC, visit anthc.org/TraditionalFoods.
*This story originally appeared in the July-September 2017 issue of the Mukluk. Read past issues online at https://www.anthc.org/mukluk