The major goal of the Cooperative Extension federally funded Adult Food Stamp Nutrition Education Program (FSNEP), is to improve the nutrition-related skills of Food Stamp recipients, applicants, and their families. Workshop participants learn how to: improve self-sufficiency; decrease reliance on emergency food resources; improve food shopping skills; improve cooking and food preparation skills; increase consumption of fruits and vegetables; increase variety in food choices; and improve food safety and food sanitation skills. In 1995, we established workshops for the Emergency Food Bank and Community Centers on how clients could best utilize surplus commodity foods.

As of June 2000, we have expanded the program's outreach to include the following programs: San Joaquin County Recovery House, Haven of Peace, Women's Crisis Center's Transitional Program, St. Mary's Tender Loving Care, Parent Program, Rescue Mission's New Life Program and Hope Family Shelter, Manteca HOPE Family Shelter Parents of children participating in the Youth FSNEP Program. To date, more than 1500 low-income adults have completed the FSNEP workshops. Evaluations of participants show significant improvements in eating habits, increased knowledge of how to stretch the food dollar, and significant increases in knowledge of food safety and sanitation practices. Just as importantly, clients report an improvement in their families overall well being due to the Adult FSNEP lessons.