Family and Community Health program

The Family & Community Health program helps build individual assets and environmental supports that protect and improve health. We work with individuals to develop knowledge and skills that help them make healthy and safe choices. We partner with families, organizations, and communities to create healthy and safe environments where people can live, work, learn, and play every day.

Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program Education (SNAP-Ed)

The SNAP-Ed program is federally funded by the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) Food and Nutrition Service (FNS). The goal of SNAP-Ed is to improve the likelihood that persons eligible for SNAP will make healthy food choices within a limited budget and choose physically active lifestyles consistent with the current Dietary Guidelines for Americans.

Oregon SNAP-Ed supports this goal by providing evidence-based educational programming, using Food Hero social marketing, and supporting policy, system, and environmental (PSE) changes that affect the food and activity environments where people live, learn, work and play.

Learn more about SNAP-Ed programming in Clackamas County:

Food Hero

Food Hero’s mission is to help low-income Oregonians improve their health through the increased consumption of fruits and vegetables. Food Hero is a multi-channel social marketing campaign, which aims to meet our goals through work at the direct education level as well as the work at the policy, system and environment levels.

Food Hero Works for Oregon report

Home Food Preservation and Safety

Food safety and preservation resources and classes, provided through the Oregon State University Extension Family and Community Health, ensures Oregonians have access to the most reliable information available.

Family Emergency Preparedness information

The Extension Disaster Education Network (EDEN) works to reduce the impact of disasters through research-based education and improve delivery of services to citizens affected by disasters and pandemics. This searchable resource directory provides a wealth of information from a collaborative multi-state effort by Extension Services across the country. View more information here.

OSU Extension is committed to keeping our families and our communities safe. Check out our family and community safety resources.

Family and Community Educators

Oregon Association for Family and Community Education is an independent non-profit organization whose history and mission is closely aligned with the OSU Family and Community Health Program. We work collaboratively to develop and deliver community education and service projects addressing important community needs.

The FCE program provides opportunities for people to learn and share information with the community. Each year OSU assists with lessons and background and materials for teachers and participants on topics of community importance. These are available for FCE groups and others who deliver community education through a "train-the-trainer" model. Contact the Clackamas Extension Office to connect with one of our local groups.

Culinary Skill Sheets

Unlike a recipe that provides detailed step-by-step instructions, skill sheets teach folks simple, intuitive, and creative ways to use food items they have on hand; maximizing food choices and decreasing household food waste.

Skill Sheets originated with Zenger Farm who developed six sheets to include in CSA boxes associated with their CSAPartnership4Health program. The Family & Community Health Program volunteers and staff collaborated with Zenger in 2021 to create four new Skill Sheets:

We encourage you to share the Skill Sheets with others who may be interested in the information. Please contact us and share your comments and feedback regarding their usefulness.

Fruit Shake ingredients measured and ready for the blender. Frozen mango makes this smoothie taste like a frozen fruit shake and is an excellent dessert!

photo by Buffy Rhoades (Cropped from original)

Invitation to Cook Along with Kids in the Kitchen!

OSU Extension Service SNAP-Ed Nutrition Education program offered an afterschool class called Kids in the Kitchen for middle school students in the Estacada and Sandy areas, Wednesday, February 24th. This class was a series of 8 weekly lessons where students learned how to prepare tasty and healthy foods, while learning food safety skills and nutrition.

The recipes they made (and many more!) can be found at our Food Hero website: www.foodhero.org and in the links posted below. Food Hero has nutritious, simple recipes made from whole ingredients, and taste good too.

When preparing these recipes, students learned how to safely use knives and other kitchen equipment. They learned how to follow a recipe and clean-up after cooking. We selected recipes that allowed students to prepare food independently that they are proud to serve and share at home.

We loved sharing this class with you! Check back as we share breakfast, snack, and lunch recipes for you and your family. We encourage you to share comments about the recipes, photos of your creations and changes you may have made to accommodate the needs and taste of your family on our Facebook and Instagram pages and include the #KidsintheKitchen #BeAFoodHero hashtags.

Kids in the Kitchen weekly class recipe links:

Safety Rules For A Successful Experience Applesauce French Toast

Eating the Five Food Groups Turkey Cranberry Quesadillas

Choose Whole Grains Cherry Puff Pancake

I’ll Eat These Veggies Sesame Noodles with Broccoli and Chicken

Fantastic Fruits Whole Wheat Blueberry Muffins

Go Lean With Protein Easy Meatballs

Got Milk? Southwestern Stuffed Potatoes

Meals With Appeal –

1. Pasta With Beans and Greens

2. Baked Cauliflower Tots

3. Fruit Shake 2 (with Milk and Yogurt)

Fruit Shake 2 video

Lentil Taco Filling

Upcoming Events

Family and Community Health events are listed below. Accommodation requests related to a disability should be made at least two weeks before events to the contact person listed in the event description.

Sep 30