Family and Community Health
Let us be your partners in health
We partner with Oregonians to promote health at every stage of life. We provide education and resources on healthy eating, food security and safety, physical activity, behavioral health and well-being, emergency preparedness, community resilience, and more.
Activities include:
- Nutrition education, including budget-friendly recipes
- Food security, safety, and preservation
- Master Food Preserver volunteer program
- Family emergency preparedness
- Physical activity programs for youth and adults
- Early childhood education and parenting
- Community food systems
- Cultural workgroups provide culturally relevant education and resources
We’re here for all Oregonians.
Inspiring lifelong health and well-being for every person, family, and community in Oregon.
Learn what is happening in your community
Volunteers in the Master Food Preservers program have doubled the amount of workshops offered and increased educational contacts by 120%. Food safety and preservation resources and classes, provided through the Oregon State University Extension Family and Community Health Program, ensures Oregonians have access to the most reliable information available.
Transcript
So there's a lot of misinformation on the internet about food preserving, and you know some of it is actively dangerous. People say, "Oh, you can do this and you can do that," but unless you're trained properly, you better not just try to wing it on what you can pick up off the computer. It's dangerous, some of it. [Music]
My name is M.L. Church, and I'm with Master Food Preservers. I was invited to join by a woman who is a friend of mine, and I took the class and was impressed and stunned and amazed by everything I learned. If the big one, the earthquake, ever comes, we're going to need at least a month's worth of sustenance. I'm a mile and a half in off Territorial Highway, and there are three bridges just to get out to Territorial. I think if that earthquake ever hits, we're going to be stuck for a while, and that's what I'm preparing for, is that kind of duration.
I would say it has made a huge difference in our life because once you assemble the equipment and get into the routine of canning produce and meat and things like that, it's relatively inexpensive and it's relatively high-quality food. The 40th year for Master Food Preservers in Oregon, and I was fortunate enough to start the first program, and I've been with Lane County for 40 years. So it's been really cool to watch the program grow, and I think building community around healthy eating and preserving your own foods and being prepared has really brought the group together.
I participate in the Master Food Preservers and also the Nutrition Education Program. I mainly got into it for the food preservation, and I wanted to learn how to process and preserve food safely. It's made me very confident in processing the food, you know, preserving the food, and just feeling like I could take care of myself if anything happened and if there's an emergency, I'm well prepared. It's not just having the food and having the water and knowing about that.
Oh, I think Extension is essential to Lane County because the services we provide, and not just the Master Food Preserver program, but the Master Gardener, the Nutrition Education Program to children and families in need. We reach so many people, and all the feedback we get is just fabulous, and can we do more? I think it's really essential because the people really are wanting to eat their local foods, they want to preserve from their garden and do all that. And I think we've helped a lot of people become sustainable in their homes and have a food supply and realize that it can be done and how easy it is to do it. And I just feel that this group especially has helped a lot of people. It's a great group of people to work with, everybody's involved, and I think we're doing a lot of good. And you know, if you can plant a garden and make it grow and then figure out how to save it, you're really reducing your food bill. And that's one of the more important things I think we do. We're out in the community, our workshops fill up, we're out at farmers' markets in the local communities, and we can really reach out and help people out there.
Ways to connect about food preservation
Ask us questions: Call the food preservation and safety hotline. We will assist you in answering your food preservation and safety questions.
- Year-round message line: 541-344-4885
- Mid-July to Mid-October hotline: 1-800-354-7319
Upcoming events
Behavioral Health
More resources
Browse OSU Extension’s behavioral health-related resources.
Food and nutrition
Food Hero
Food Hero is your go-to site for quick, tasty, healthy recipes and helpful tips. Whether you’re a beginner or a pro, you’ll find something new for your family to enjoy.
Become a Pantry Food Hero Volunteer
The Pantry Food Heroes volunteer program supports healthy nutrition and education in our local food pantries. . Volunteers visit their local pantry once a month with a delicious and nutritious recipe to share with all pantry patrons. Our Pantry Food Heroes also offer cooking tips and get creative with the house-less community on preparing nutritious recipes with alternative cooking sources. Other volunteers prefer the behind-the-scenes work of dividing recipe ingredients and preparing boxes to be picked up for tasting events.
If you are interested in working with a food pantry in your neighborhood, please email Jillian for more information on how to get involved!
Nutrition and education outreach
Transcript
I'm Elise Camphor, and I've worked at Malabon for 25 years as an elementary school teacher. Right now, I teach third grade. Malabon is in the Eugene area, but we're in the Bethel School District.
My name is Lizzie McDougall, and I am part of the nutrition education department for Lane County Extension Office. So, I get the fun job of going to schools and teaching nutrition ed and cooking and health-related skills.
How did you get started?
I was able to find help from the extension service when we were looking for ways to enrich the kids' math and, of course, social skills. Cooking came up, and parents had indicated over time that they wanted kids to have real-life experiences. So, when the extension service explained what Lizzie was doing, it was a perfect fit. The curriculum that I teach is the same curriculum as Kids in the Kitchen, but the way it's applied in the classroom has evolved as we've gotten to know the students and their needs. What was so important about the program was that it was an eight-week situation so that the children had skills varying ability levels. I can say that I had some children who had used knives before, but I also had children who had not been allowed in the kitchen. So, it was a wide range of their experiences, and again, they were young. So, having the eight weeks made all the difference. And then it moved into reading recipes, preparing the food itself, and then even more complex skills. It took it from an abstract idea to a real, physical, hands-on, fun, and exciting activity. So, the recipes that we utilize in the classroom and in all of our programming, it comes from our Food Hero website. They're designed for a person with limited skills in the kitchen. The recipes feature fruits and vegetables to create a nutritionally balanced meal that the kids enjoy. The recipes are designed so that we're not teaching to cook from a can. We're teaching them how to do every part of the skill, the measuring, the chopping, the cooking, and all that.
What did you learn because of Lane County Extension's outreach? I would say that it brought the kids that experience that they don't ever forget. School is a series of listen, follow directions, and of course, learning. But those hands-on and also group cooperative activities stay with them forever. And it wasn't just the children that were able to benefit from the extension. It was their parents, and many parents I've had over the years, of course, all of their children. And they would come in the fall and say, "When is the cooking class?" They also were able to tell their parents about cooking, and their parents are excited because they feel that it gives that independence that the children have always wanted to have. But who's going to teach them that in an organized way? The extension service provided that.
Conclusion: Lane County Extension is essential because it's a bridge for what's happening outside of the school. We have a California garden, of course, and children don't garden like they used to. They'd have to get to high school to experience that in our district. But with Lizzy bringing in the fruits and vegetables and she teaches them their origin. So, without extension service, I would not be able to provide that for the children. Where does the food come from? This is the way that they find that out you.
Physical activity and active living
Families and Youth
Family and Community Health Extension
Every day, our Family and Community Health team works to achieve the College of Health’s vision of lifelong health and well-being for individuals, families, and communities throughout Oregon.
We partner in communities to promote healthy nutrition, food safety and security, physical activity, mental/behavioral health and well-being, emergency preparedness, community resilience, and more. Our faculty and staff offer an expanded set of public health and human sciences programs spanning individual-level education and policy, systems, and environmental approaches.
We collaborate across Extension program areas to promote mental health and wellness throughout Oregon. Our partnership with the OSU Center for Health Innovation (OCHI) works to leverage existing state and community strengths for mental health promotion and substance use prevention.
Browse related Extension resources
- Health outreach
- Local, regional and community food systems
- Home food preservation
- Nutrition and healthy eating
- Family emergency preparedness
- Parenting
- Physical activity
Browse all OSU Extension resources by topic. Or search for resources.