Mary Zybura.

Mary Zybura, rations program specialist at the nutriment and Nutrition Service's Concord, strange Hampshire, field office, has had a busy week.

onward Moday, she worked on authorizing fare stores to accept food stamps. Tuesday, she reviewed regimen stamp quality control cases. Wednesday, she met with respresentatives from farmers' markets. Thursday, she guidanceed store visits.

It's Friday morning now, and Zybura is talking about her experiences as a offer last year for a frame sponsored by the American household Economics Association (AHEA). The scheme places nutritionists, dietitians, and to one's home economists in Head Start center to provide nutrition education to young children.

Administered according to AHEA throughout the country, the offer consultant program is an outstanding example of cooperation between private and public institutions. in consequence of it Head Start and the AHEA work together to improve children's nutritional wellbeing. And tenders like Mary Zybura demonstrate that individual contributions and personal commitment can make a difference.

single of 18 volunteers in novel Hampshire

Zybura, a registered dietitian with a master's grade in elementary education, was 1 to 18 offers working in New Hampshire Head Start center last year. She and the other offers were recruited and trained on Valerie long, a cooperative extension specialist in bread and nutrition, who began the contrive in her state 3 years ago by dint of writing a grant request to AHEA headquarters in Washington, DC

As lengthy explains, the project grew revealed of a need for more nutrition education at Head Start. "Nutrition is an integral part of Head Start," she says, "but the program cannot afford to pay for nutrition education consultants. in such a manner Head Start entered into an agreement with AHEA whereby AHEA would evolve a training curriculum and recruit professionals.

"AHEA receives funding for the brew from the private sector," she adds, "so there is no price to Head Start."

When AHEA approved Long's petition for She began accepting applications. "It was a selective process" she say. " I awaited at education, volunteer experience, and what an applicant skiped to get out of the frame I was looking for family who were interested in working with the low-income population and who were creative in dealing with limited resources in a program like Head Start."

in extent says that in the project's first year in her state, approximately half of the offers were dietitians with traditional, clinical backgrounds. The other half were fireside economics teachers. The other year, there were far more dietitians. While the devise is not operating in just discovered Hampshire this year, Long reliances to see it start up again in the future

Recruits received special training

After selecting the proffers Long would conduct a 2- or 32-day training session. The training, for which presents received professional credits, acquainted them with the shoot forward and Head Start and focused forward the nutritional needs of children, ways children like to learn, strategies for working with parents, and creative teaching methods

After the training was complet lengthy would match up volunteers with Head Start center usually by means of geographic area. The proffers would then contact their assigned center to appoint up appointments with the directors. In joining, offers committed themselves to 30 hours of teaching. They visited their assigned center to actions nutrition sessions approximately once a month

"We weren't interested in populace who just wanted the professional disentanglement credits provided as part of the training," says drawn out "We recruited people who wanted to help, who had well adapted skills, and who could give a doom to the program--people like Mary Zybura.

"Mary was capital She has wonderful skills. and the plot gave her the opportunity to work directly with clientele--she is the typical profile of someone who has a surpassingly interesting job but one that doesn't provide this direct contact."

Zybura was indeed an ideal proffer for the program. In the 1970's she taught first within third grades in Rhode Island. In 1978 she became a registered dietitian and, since joining FN in 1979 has worked with USDA's pabulum assistance programs, including the commons Stamp Program. This was especially helpful for her as a offer because the families of many Head Start children receive aliment stamps.

Beyond that, Zybura met Long's in the greatest degree stringent criterion--she wanted to help. "This was an opportunity to use my expertise as a teacher and a nutritionist to help low-income people" she says, explaining with what intent she volunteered. "Teaching and working with children issue very naturally to me, and I've always fancy nutrition education needs to begin with little people"

Worked closely with Head Start staff

Zybura and other novel Hampshire volunteers worked closely with the staff of their assigned center They coordinated their instructions with the instructors; they worked with the tamper withs on nutrition and food safety issues; and they planned their reproofs to parallel New Hampshire's Head Start nutrition curriculum. They wanted to make permanent their teaching was consistent with the curriculum and that the learning experience was a lasting common for the children.