Nutrition and physical activity are important parts of keeping your body and your mind healthy and productive. A healthy, productive body and mind will help you be able to navigate everyday activities and stressors. The concern for this stability in the United States is very high, but in the rural communities in Michigan the concern grows even higher.
My name is Wendy Friend, and I am a Community Nutrition Instructor with Michigan State University Extension (MSUE). I service Tuscola County where the population, as of 2023 was 52,826. We have 11 cities, and Caro is the county seat where the population is 4,272.
One of the recent series I ran was a nutrition class at the Tuscola County Transition Center where they work with teens and recent graduates, aged 14 to 25 all with some degree of Disabilities.
The Choose Health: Food, Fun, & Fitness (CHFFF) curriculum contains 6 lessons, each lasting between 90 and 120 minutes. This nutrition curriculum is based on My Plate and USDA guidelines. Incorporated into the main nutrition lessons are physical activities, games, and a cooking demonstration with healthy, budget friendly recipes.
While working with these students, conversations started taking place centered around why they couldn’t make certain healthy choices at home. Through these conversations I became increasingly aware that most of these students rely on their parents for most or all their shopping, cooking, health, and financial needs. I soon realized that while teaching them about nutrition was fun and good for them, it wouldn’t really make a difference in their well-being without also teaching their parents or guardians about it as well.
I started looking at statistics and found that between 17 and 50% of IDD cases can be attributed to genetic factors. To me this means there is a good possibility their families do not have the knowledge or resources to make healthy changes in their nutrition and fitness routines, or that little changes can have big effects on their health and well-being.
So, I approached the director of the Transition Center, Jason Davis, with the idea of running the Nutrition series with the parents of his students. He was very receptive and excited at the thought of family involvement. We knew there would be several obstacles, the biggest of which are cost, sufficient staffing, transportation, convenience of time and place for the families, and incentives to attend and complete.
With the help of Jason, I was able to present an overview of my idea to the Tuscola County Transition Board. They too were very receptive, and we worked out several of the obstacles together. Below are the series plan bullet points as it stands right now.
- Wendy, through MSU Extension, will run a 6-week session of the series CHFFF in Millington where 6 families of the Transition students from that surrounding area will be invited. (Transportation barrier)
- A Tuscola County ISD employee will attend and assist as needed.
- The students of these families will also assist in teaching the curriculum to their parents. This will make sure they truly understood the concepts they were taught, instill a sense of accomplishment for the students, and hopefully give the parents a sense of pride in their children.
- We will also offer childcare during the 6, 2-hour sessions. The littles will be watched by students in the childcare program at the Tuscola Tech Center and a licensed Daycare provider. (Childcare barrier)
- We will make a relevant recipe each session that the families will get to taste. Then each family will be sent home with a bag of groceries containing the ingredients to go home and make the recipe again as a meal for their entire household. (access barrier)
- Upon completion of the 6-week series each family will be given a $25 gift card to Walmart. There will be no stipulation on what they can purchase, but the hope is they will use it to buy groceries or kitchen supplies or equipment. (Incentive to participate and complete the program)
We also found a fantastic new partner in The Michigan Center for Rural Health. They are creating bridges for new partnerships in the medical field to help with the funding for the groceries and gift cards. 
With all of us working together we feel we are on a great path and very close to making this opportunity a reality for our rural families.In addition, our hope is that after this first pilot series, we will be able to repeat it in other areas of the county and serve more families.
I hope you find this information helpful and educational as you continue to join us in supporting Rural Health in Michigan.Thank you for all you do!
Wendy Friend,
Community Nutrition Instructor
MSU Extension – Tuscola County