Comienzo Sano: Familia Saludable
Funding Agency: United States Department of Agriculture
Funding Period: September 2007 - August 2010
Comienzo Sano: Familia Saludable, aims to impact and advance the quality of Latino nutrition education by recruiting and preparing students enrolled in CSULB’s Nutrition and Health Science Departments to work with Latina immigrant mothers participating in the Women, Infants and Children (WIC) Supplemental Nutrition Program. Through experiential learning opportunities using the Community Health Outreach Model (combining Social Action and Behavioral Change Theories), a total of 17 students engaged in active outreach and research internship opportunities. The Student Community Health Educators (SCHEs) provided culturally and linguistically relevant health education regarding prenatal care, the importance of breastfeeding initiation and duration, proper infant nutrition and the importance of exercise and family-centered health and wellness strategies to over 200 Latina WIC mothers. Moreover, one graduate student intern received a full tuition scholarship, including books, materials, and conference travel opportunities. As part of this project the NCLR/CSULB Center hosted a USDA Hispanic Serving Institution Best Practices Conference for more than 75 participants representing different institutions of higher education.