Resources

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...

Job Post Here: https://ejobs.umd.edu/postings/113812 Colleagues and friends, I just want to float this job announcement to the top of your emails. The University of Maryland Extension (UME), within the College of Agriculture and Natural Resources (AGNR) seeks a nationally recognized leader in Extension, outreach, and scholarship to serve as Assistant Director and Program Leader (AD/PL) for Family & Consumer Sciences (FCS) . This position provides leadership and direction for UME’s FCS...

Unlike impulsive buying, emotional spending is frequently heightened by stress, grief, or moments of happiness or sadness. Regardless of these triggers, they can impact your finances negatively. For example, you shop to make yourself feel better after a bad day at work. As a result, compulsive shopping and spending stems from an impulse disorder habit that can be addictive for many. The relationship between money and happiness is now seen as complete. Aknin, Wiwad, and Hannibal (2018)...

As we approach the Christmas season, be mindful of excessive holiday spending. While Christmas is the season of giving, excessive spending can lead to much regret, depression, and even added financial struggles in the new year. According to Berden and Haws (2012), spending can quickly get out of hand when it is driven by emotions rather than a plan. Have you ever gone to the store to grab a few items, but as you stroll next to the; buy one get one free, the rollbacks, the manager's special,...

The Journal of Extension (JOE), the official refereed journal of the U.S. Cooperative Extension System, is seeking input from its partners on its Job Board Service at jobs.joe.org . This fee-based service is available to those wishing to promote Extension job openings on the JOE website. Revenue received from this service helps support the production of the Journal of Extension . The feedback received will be used to make improvements to the service. Even if you have not used the service in...

This work is supported by funding from a cooperative agreement with USDA-NIFA and in partnership with Oklahoma State University, New Technologies for Ag Extension, grant no 2020-41595-30123. ExtensionBot is a chatbot that is built and deployed by the Extension Foundation. We are working closely with Eduworks Corporation on the development and deployment of the technology. ExtensionBot is backed by an LLM (Large Language Model) that is trained exclusively on data provided by Cooperative...

Tennessee Extension is looking forward to hosting the National Urban Extension Conference in Nashville. We have opening up hotel registration today. Please reserve your hotel room at the below link. If you need a double room, please call the hotel directly at 1-877-901-6632. https://book.passkey.com/e/50633971

By: Jenny Rea, Ph.D. , Edited by Anna Peterson Arizona is home to 500,000+ service members, veterans, and their families. I recently had the opportunity to attend the Arizona Coalition for Military Families’ 13th Annual Statewide Symposium in Phoenix, Arizona. This annual event is Arizona’s only conference that brings together the military, government, and community. The symposium focuses on strengthening services and support for Arizona’s military-connected population. As Extension...

Edited by: Anna Peterson Written by: Karen Shirer, Ph.D. The popular media continues to draw attention to the national mental well-being crisis among children and youth, including those in military families. The CBS television station affiliate in Minnesota, WCCO-4, recently aired a three-part series on the pandemic’s impact on youth mental health . The reporter, Esme Murphy, interviewed the following national experts on youth development regarding the crisis: Doctor Sarah Jerstad, the...

What is gratitude ? It's a sense of wonder, thankfulness & appreciation for life . Gratitude helps increase optimism for life. It promotes positive thinking. It helps us cope with daily stress & traumatic events. Appreciating things in our life and focusing on the positive can help us move forward with purpose. Gratitude can also strengthen our relationships. People who feel gratitude towards others feel closer to them and report overall better relationships, even if they don't...

By: Jenny Rea, Ph.D. Adapted by Anna Peterson Did you know… 25% of active-duty spouses reported food insecurity in 2021? The 2021 Survey of Active Duty Spouses found that 27% of families with children under six experienced food insecurity. Among this same group of active-duty spouses, 41% were unemployed. These findings echo those mentioned in Noelle Harden’s (Health and Nutrition Educator, University of Minnesota Extension) recent blog post . Noelle provided an overview of nutrition...

By Noelle Harden I recently talked with my mom and grandparents about hunger and food insecurity in the military. My grandpa served in the air force, then worked for the Veterans Administration. My mom spent her childhood moving across the country from base to base. They shared their struggles to be able to afford healthy and affordable food. Food Insecurity in the Military The RAND Corporation released a report last month on food security in the military. They found that 15.4% of active...