Blog

December is a festive time of year with twinkling lights, fresh baked goods, and lively parties. However, planning menus that meet guests’ dietary restrictions, sticking within your holiday budget, and ensuring safe food practices can be overwhelming. Enjoy a stress-free holiday with resources from Nutrition.gov’s new Healthy Holidays webpage. You can find information on: How to maintain your health goals during celebrations by making healthy substitutions in your recipes. Meal planning to...

Greetings Colleagues: The planning committee for the 2024 National Health Outreach and Engagement Conference is now accepting proposals to present at next year’s conference. The conference will be held May 13-15, 2024 and will be hosted by University of Georgia, Clemson University, and North Carolina State University Extension Services in Greenville, SC. Interested individuals may submit proposals for concurrent sessions of 60 or 20 minutes in length as well as poster presentations that will...

The Extension Foundation has issued a Compost Summit Report written by University of Illinois Extension educator Kathryn Pereira. This report documents the May 2023 Compost Summit hosted by the University of Illinois Extension, which gathered several dozen compost professionals. Over the course of the Summit the group explored the challenges, the current status of work, and opportunities to improve the composting ecosystem in greater Chicagoland. The intent of the report is to inspire and...

Written by Summer Jones, ZERO TO THREE Between birth and age 3, a child’s brain develops one million neural connections per second (Center on the Developing Child, 2007). These connections are built through repeated experiences with their caregivers. Babies are born wired for connection, instinctively drawing responses from their caregivers that help strengthen the bond between them (Sullivan et al., 2011). The building of this bond, or attachment, is a two-way street between baby and their...

The Juntos Program will host Dr. Jim Michnowicz, Head of the Department of World Languages and Cultures and Professor of Hispanic Linguistics at NC State University. Jim will share some knowledge with us regarding Spanish Perceptions in the US. This engaging call will focus on Spanglish and what this bilingual mode of communication means for our Hispanic communities. We will first define "Spanglish", and then examine why and how speakers mix languages. We will highlight some reasons why...

Thought you might enjoy a Yogi Berra quote to start... "Baseball is 90% mental and the other half is physical." Too funny and makes a great point. Life is a constant mental challenge. And we know, heaven or hell, it's between our ears. As you ponder what it will take for you to become more mentally resilient, here are some things to consider. "I don't count my sit-ups; I only start counting when it starts hurting because they're the only ones that count." -Muhammad Ali When the going gets...

November 29th, 2023 2-3 PM ET/1-2 CT/12-1 MT/11-12 PT Register Here: https://pages.extension.org/22007 The Extension Foundation is hosting a webinar that will feature senior officials from USDA, along with third-party program vendors, to discuss the Discrimination Financial Assistance Program (DFAP) . Because of Cooperative Extension’s proximity to farmers at the local level, this webinar will share important DFAP information ahead of the application deadline, January 13, 2024. The...

There has never been another person like you on the planet...ever. And, there won't ever be another person like you again...ever. Inherently then, everything you do is unique. So why do we fill our lives like a Thanksgiving plate? Yes, we have many responsibilities that all need looking after. What we're talking about is YOUR unique contribution to this world. If your "plate" is an inch deep and a mile wide (like your Thanksgiving plate) it's hard to know where your focus should go. You're...

The Extension Foundation has added three new titles to its publications library. These brief publications - written as magazine-style feature stories - share project work funded through the New Technologies for Ag Extension (NTAE) program , a cooperative agreement between USDA NIFA, Oklahoma State University, and the Extension Foundation. NATE's goal is to incubate, accelerate, and expand promising work that will increase the impact of the Cooperative Extension System (CES) in the...

We're wrapping up an exceptional year of Dynamic Discussion sessions! Throughout this year, the Extension Foundation brought together professionals from Cooperative Extension and beyond to explore a diverse array of topics. Dynamic Discussion provides a platform to learn perspectives, exchange ideas, and creates a space for conenction and sharing. Together, we've discussed into new ideas, gained insights, and contemplated the future of Extension. The discussions this year covered topics such...

Technology-Enhanced Cooperative Extension Hub (TECHExt) Summary : NTAE (New Technologies for Ag Extension) a grant from NIFA (National Institute of Food and Agriculture) will begin Year 1 with the Extension Foundation January, 2024. EXF has the subaward for this grant from the University of New Hampshire who is the prime award for this funding. Within the funding EXF receives from the NTAE grant, one of the grant activity focus areas are the development of projects that lead to local impact...

The hardest part of leadership development is behavior change. It's hard, not impossible. Haven't met a single person who isn't capable of interpersonal behavior change. We all can do it! Step #1 is awareness. If we're not aware we can't put efforts in place to make meaningful growth happen. Feedback is the breakfast of Champions! Step #2 is don't be so hard on yourself. We will all mess up. Great leadership is allowing people to fail but not allowing them to feel like a failure along the...