Virginia state university project abstract: the expanded food and nutrition education program (EFNEP) seeks to expand the impact of nutrition education dispersed amongst low income families and…

The Department of Agriculture National Institute of Food and Agriculture awarded Virginia State University $139,545 under the Expanded Food and Nutrition Education Program (CFDA 10.514) on October 1, 2025.

Virginia State University delivers nutrition education to low-income families, pregnant women and teens, and youth in grades K–12 using evidence-based curricula including Eating Smart Being Active, Pick a Better Snack, Choose Health, Teen Cuisine, and Eat Smart Virginia. These curricula address food resource management, diet quality, physical activity, food safety, and food security, with hands-on food preparation components integrated throughout instruction. The program is implemented jointly with Virginia Tech and focuses on improving nutritional well-being and supporting behavior change among limited-income populations in Virginia.

The award runs through September 30, 2030, with performance at Petersburg, Virginia. The assistance type is a formula grant, available only to 1862 and 1890 land-grant institutions.

Virginia state university project abstract: the expanded food and nutrition education program (EFNEP) seeks to expand the impact of nutrition education dispersed amongst low income families and youth in the 50 states within the united states, its' territories, and the district of columbia. The virginia expanded food and nutrition education program (EFNEP) seeks to achieve this purpose through the improvement of youth and families' nutritional well being by acquiring food, nutrition, and physical activity knowledge, attitudes, skills, and behavior change. The program is implemented jointly through both virginia tech and virginia state university. Poor health disproportionately affects minority populations and persons with low income, due to limited resources, lower educational attainment levels, and access to affordable, nutritious, and culturally appropriate foods and safe opportunities to be active. Food insecurity continues to be a problem for virginians. Many virginians struggle with having enough money for food. The most recent data show that 9.3% of virginians are food insecure, lower than the national rate (13.5%) (USDA ERS, 2024). Virginia state university (VSU) EFNEP provides programming to parents and caregivers, pregnant women and teens, and youth (grades K - 12) with limited incomes. Several types of curricula are used to disseminate nutrition education to the target population. The eating smart being active curricula is a research-based curricula that is used to address all of the core program areas of EFNEP within the adult population (food resource management, diet quality, physical activity, food safety, and food security). The pick a better snack, choose health, teen cuisine, and eat smart virginia are all evidenced based curriculum that focuses on diet quality, physical activity, food resource management, and food safety. Several of the curricula have hands-on food preparation components integrated throughout each lesson. The VSU EFNEP will focus on 5 programmatic priorities over the next year. Programmatic priorities 1 & 2 will seek to improve overall diet quality among adults and youth. There was no data available for FY 25, one adult participant increased their diet quality. For FY 24, 78% of youth increased their diet quality; this is below the national average of 86%. Programmatic priority 3 will seek to increase the competence of EFNEP educators through the ecornell platform. The navigating for success program sponsored by cornell university will serve as a supplement to the existing professional development training program provided by the virginia family and nutrition program. Programmatic priority 4 will seek to increase the number of adult EFNEP participants. EFNEP adult enrollment numbers at similar 1890 institutions ranged from 19-353. FY 22 adult enrollment for VSU was 44. In FY 25, there were two participants adults enrolled in the program. Programmatic priority 5 will seek to improve the overall physical activity among adults. Of the two participants enrolled, one participant improve their overall physical activity. Awarding virginia state university's EFNEP funds will assist our program in meeting the need of the citizens of virginia and equip US to respond to the rise of food insecurities and health disparities within the commonwealth. EFNEP is a proven and effective nutrition education program that impacts lives.