Veggies for ME! Project Overview

The ‘Veggies for ME!’ program was designed by USM Muskie School, the Maine WIC Nutrition Program and the University of Maine Cooperative Extension to promote vegetable consumption among WIC participants and their families by addressing barriers identified from a needs assessment survey. The survey identified cost, limited preparation skills, inability to manage family likes/dislikes, and low familiarity with a variety of vegetables as major barriers to vegetable consumption. WIC counselors at three WIC agencies met with moms participating in the WIC program during their regularly scheduled visits to discuss strategies for improving vegetable consumption. During a one-year program, four topics were addressed quarterly: 1) Food resource management; 2) Vegetable cooking and preparation techniques; 3) Feeding relationships and; 4) Exploring seasonality and variety in vegetables. Materials used included handouts, newsletters, recipes, bulletin boards and other materials that focused on the four topics.

What we know:

To identify appropriate program curriculum, the planning workgroup created a survey to assess the vegetable consumption, preparation and purchasing barriers faced by WIC clients at large from the participating agencies.  The workgroup pilot tested the survey at a local WIC agency to determine readability and comprehension in the target audience.  The telephone survey (n = 400) was conducted by contacting WIC clients at the aforementioned agencies.   Analysis of the telephone survey results indicated that:

• 58% of the clients have been making efforts to increase their vegetable intake.
• 52% of the clients indicated that knowing how to prepare vegetables would help them serve vegetables more often.
• 62% indicated that “the cost of vegetables” is a barrier to purchasing vegetables (When ranking barriers , 29% of clients noted that cost was the biggest problem in serving more vegetables).
• 41% indicated that “the quality of vegetables” is a concern when purchasing vegetables.
• 48% of clients indicated that they cook vegetables for their family that they don’t personally eat.

 

Handouts - Click for full-size .pdf

 

Newsletters

 

Recipes

 

Bulletin Boards

 

Other Materials

 

Questions about Veggies for ME? 

Contact:

Matthew L'Italien MS RD LD
University of Southern Maine
Muskie School of Public Service
Maine Nutrition Network
45 Commerce Drive, Suite 11
Augusta, ME  04330
P: 207/626-5219
mlitalien@usm.maine.edu

 

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