Center for Regional Food Systems

The SNAP Nutrition Education and Obesity Prevention Grant Program (SNAP-Ed) is designed to help families improve nutrition, increase physical activity, and stretch their food dollars. Partnerships are critical to SNAP-Ed success in the effort to build healthier communities, and land-grant universities’ Cooperative Extension agents are a key partner providing programs, messaging, and policy, systems, and environmental interventions alongside state departments of health and education, state-level nutrition networks, and other organizations. However, there are a multitude of factors influencing state and community partnerships, including funding disparities within the land-grant university system and among statewide implementing agencies, cultural awareness and integration, community food access, and so on. This three-part webinar series explores these factors, considers their impact on partnership development, and offers ideas and models for more equitable SNAP-Ed partnerships. 

This 90-minute webinar focuses on SNAP-Ed as a tool for equity and innovative SNAP-Ed collaborations.

In this webinar you will learn about:

• How Georgia is interpreting and implementing equity in SNAP-Ed programs.
• The “living,” non-hierarchical organizational model Oklahoma Tribal Engagement Partners (OKTEP), a SNAP-Ed implementing agency, promotes to enhance equity among staff, tribal partners, and community members and extend culturally relevant programing to Tribal Nations.
• Promising practices to increase healthy food access through the Kansas Tribal Food Systems project, a joint effort of the American Heart Association MidWest Chapter, the Sunflower Foundation, and K-State Research & Extension SNAP-Ed that leveraged private, public, and federal funds to connect with the four federally recognized Kansas tribal communities.

Featured presenters/facilitators include:

• Latresh Davenport, Association of SNAP Nutrition Education Administrators (ASNNA) Race, Health, and Social Equity Co-Chair and SNAP Nutrition Education Program Manager - Georgia Division of Family & Children Services
• Teresa Jackson, ASNNA Leadership Team Senior Co-Chair and Tribal Partnerships & Outcomes Coordinator - Oklahoma Tribal Engagement Partners
• Tandy Rundus, SNAP-Ed NE Region Specialist - Kansas State University Research & Extension (KSRE)
• Janis Simon, Tribal Food Systems Coordinator - American Heart Association/KSRE
• Kolia Souza, Food System Equity and Advocacy Specialist – MSU Center for Regional Food Systems

This webinar was sponsored by the MSU Center for Regional Food Systems in collaboration with the Racial Equity in the Food System Workgroup. It aired on November 29, 2022

See previous webinars:

• Part 1: Federal and State Partnerships, and advocacy opportunities.
• Part 2: Community food access, nutrition security, and culturally appropriate education.

Funding for the Racial Equity in the System Workgroup is provided in part by the W.K. Kellogg Foundation.