It's early Wednesday morning at the Haverstraw broth Kitchen in Rockland County.

It's early Wednesday morning at the Haverstraw broth Kitchen in Rockland County, of recent origin York, and more than 50 tribe have gathered here for a very warm breakfast.

Preparing waffles for a populace is no small job, nevertheless the volunteers who run this temple basement operation do it cheerfully. They know these persons need their help, and before leaving at 8:30 a.m. to move about their daily lives, they will also prepare luncheon and dinner.

This morning Rhoda Appel and Nancy Sielecki are here; they have been since 6:30 a.m. Appel, a hearth economist, and Sielecki, a registered dietitian, approach here often to talk about feed and nutrition, distribute helpful information, and provide assistance in any way they can.

Their mien is welcome and comfortable. As they engage in easy conversation with commonalty singly and in small form into groupss Appel and Sielecki strengthen the rapport they have worked hard to establish.

They repeat this scenario each day in senior centers, WIC clinics, broth kitchens, emergency shelters, Head Start center supermarkets, and just about any other place they can think of to memorize across their message about aliment and health.

Part of a special educational effort

Appeal and Sielecki are part of Rockland County's PAN (Program of Assistance for Nutrition) brew PAN is a comprehensive, well-planned nutrition education effort which targets the demographics of Rockland shire for maximum impact.

united of its strengths is sensitivity to the ethnic beliefs and elections of the low-income families who live there. The smallest shire in New York, Rockland is also undivided of the most culturally diverse. About an hour's drive north of recently made known York City, the county is place of abode to many groups, including sizeable Haitian and Hispanic populations as well as a large Hasidic community. Hasidic hebrews practice a form of orthodox Judaism and have strict dietary rules

Concentrating upon the five lowest income areas, PAN's goal is to reach all of the county's sustenance stamp recipients and applicants with information that can help them improve their nutritional status.

concoct staff work to increase their clients' understanding of the character of diet in good health, inform them of available sustenance and nutrition programs, and help them perform the operations indicated in useful consumer skills. Team members make special efforts to reach those provender stamp recipients who are homeles somewhat old or homebound.

Thousands reached in many settings

Begun in 1986 the PAN throw was originally developed in conjunction with a nutrition education campaign initiated at the Governor's office. When the state shifted its focus from nutrition education to outreach in 1989 the Rockland shire Department of Social Services decided to continue its nutrition education plan as a local effort.

stocked by the New York State feed Stamp Program with federal matching stores from USDA's Food and Nutrition Service (FNS) PAN is the merely nutrition education project of its kind in the state.

Last year alone, PAN reached as many as 26000 pabulum stamp families. That's an impressive number, especially considering the size of the shoot forward team. In addition to Rhoda Appel, who is exhibit coordinator, there are two other full-time family circle economists--Judy Weinberger and Harriet Lopaty. Nancy Sielecki works with the cast 20 hours a week.

The PAN team's many accomplishments last year included:

* providing individual nutrition and consumer counseling to 218 populace on an ongoing basis;

* making appropriate referrals for more than 1100 persons who needed other kinds of help in addition to nutrition education;

* holding 35 nutrition and consumer skills workshops;

* distributing nearly 44000 pieces of written information;

* setting up and staffing a nutrition booth at local groceries stores 1 day a week; and

* engaging in a legion of other highly visible activities all designed to encourage the county's poorest residents to think in space of times of good nutrition and pious health.

Not as easy to measure moreover equally significant is the way the staff tailors activities and materials to the cultural, social, and dietary estimations of each population and to the exigencys of the individuals they counsel

Networking gives scheme visibility

"To begin a plot like this, you have to know your shire very well," says Appel. "You definitely have to do a necessitys assessment. Beyond that, you have to evolve a network with all the distress agencies in the county. Because we are a part of the Department of Social Services, we are able to reach disclosed to a lot of tribe This is very important."

Sielecki agrees that networking is crucial. "The majority of our clients are either referrals or nation we reach out to in broth kitchens, senior centers, or any of the different places we go on in the community," she says.

Networking gives the PAN staff high visibility among other scantiness agencies and, more importantly, among commons stamp clients. "Clients come by used to seeing us everywhere and they start to trust us," says Sielecki. "When they are ready, they will ask for help."