College of Agricultural Sciences Cooperative Extension

What's New in 4-H Family and Consumer Science
February 12-March 1, 2001

In this newsletter:

  1. A New Web Site for Consumer Textile Questions
  2. Team Nutrition, Challenges and Opportunities
  3. Results of the Curriculum Proposal Process
  4. Article Requests out this Week!
  5. Farm Show Changes
  6. Farm Show Results On-Line
  7. Resources and Ideas
  8. In the News
  9. Don't Forget
  10. Sad Postscript

    1. A New Web Site for Consumer Textile Questions, Please Bookmark This!!

    So many of you send me questions related to stains and textile problems. We used to have a membership with the International Fabricare Association, but now that the dues are $200.00, we are not able to obtain assistance by phone (though I use a list serve of Textiles and Clothing specialists to help me). I read recently that IFI has a web site and there is an "ASK THE EXPERT" option and links to the Better Business Bureau and the Federal Trade Commission for garment cleaning complaints. Please bookmark this web site: http://www.ifi.org. Also some of the new consumer features are offered on new-look ifi.org. Please check out these sites!

    2. Team Nutrition

    It looks like we are not going to have the funding that we had hoped for the Glow, Grow and Go publications but we are still searching for some. This doesn't mean we can't do Team Nutrition. Claudia Probart from the Nutrition Department will be working with schools on a new curriculum this fall (unfortunately we don't have a copy of this new curriculum--they send it only to the schools). But, do contact your school food service directors and check with them if they would like to collaborate on nutrition education programs. The information about which schools participate is in our new Team Nutrition video (of the last inservice). We have enough tapes now so you can have one for your office. Write me and let me know you want a copy. If you view it and want PDUs, let me know that, too. Katherine and I will help you all we can. Please send us any reports of what you are doing for Team Nutrition. They are critical for keeping this program going!,

    Another Team Nutrition Opportunity
    Innovative Cooking Enterprises, a Team Nutrition Supporter, is sponsoring an on-line essay contest for Team Nutrition Schools. 500 Bread Machine Activity Kits will be awarded to the winners. Each kit contains a bread machine, Electric Bread recipe books and an array of tools and supplies to begin teaching with bread machines.

    The contest began January 22 and will end on February 28. Please urge your Team Nutrition Schools to enter. Winners will be announced on or before March 31.

    For more information, visit http://www.fns.usda.gov/tn/New/breadmachine.html

    3. Nine Proposals Submitted for Project Ideas in the Family and Consumer Sciences Area

    There were nine project proposals submitted to be considered in the family and consumer sciences area, ten if you count International Foods and Breads that was suggested by the International Committee. (Both committees will work together. The committee that met presented the proposals, Blannie Bowen and Marilyn Corbin will decide which ones will be printed this month. The Curriculum Innovation Fund will be used to support one proposal, we won't know when this will be announced, but may be in this area or outside. We still need to obtain funding for the proposals. Rob Butler in charge of Outreach Development will be working with us, but he says he needs leads to make the funding happen.

    Here are the following proposals. We are going to try to put these on the web site, but if you would like to see a copy of the proposals sooner and/or ideas for potential funding sources, please let me know.

    Clothing and Textile Science Project Sheets
    Foods and Nutrition Project
    Celebrate Your Family Through 4-H
    CHAT: Connecting Humans Around Talk
    Generation Celebration
    Tools and Resources for Intergenerational Action and Learning
    Everyday Living
    Rent Event Game
    Kids and Kash
    Supermarket Saavy
    International Foods and Breads (to be included with Foods and Nutrition Project committees will work together)

    The most recent curriculum team minutes are at: http://pa4h.cas.psu.edu/CMTminutes.html.

    4. Article Requestes

Those of you requesting resource article copies will find them in your county boxes (sent out on Thursday). I have one mailed in request in which the franked label was removed from the list of articles. If you think it is yours, please let me know and I will send the article requests to you right away! Sorry, we didn't get these out sooner, we've had copier troubles. Jan

5. Farm Show Changes

Any suggested farm show changes for the 4-H Opportunities Section should be submitted to me before February 20. The "final" list is usually out the end of April.

6. Farm Show Results Online

Farm Show results are available for the first time this year on-line. You can go to the official Farm Show site by using the following link.
http://sites.state.pa.us/PA_Exec/Agriculture/bureaus/farm_show/2001farmshow/farmshowindex.htm

Note: The link is a long one. If it "breaks" in your e-mail window, you may not be able to double-click it.

When at this page, click the Results button and follow the subsequent links.

In addition, the ICT Unit (who provide radio reports during Farm Show) is making available our data as well. This should be considered an UN-official "test" site. If you look at it and find it useful, let us know and we'll do it again next year. Note: please be aware that our site doesn't have all the classes. We can't get everything from PDA. That's why we're un-official.

To access our un-official site, go here: http://ag2admin38.cas.psu.edu/fs/

7. Resources and Ideas

The Always Company has put together a mother-to-daughter kit giving information, interactive puberty booklets and product samples. For more information or to order the kit for $7.99 visit www.always.com or www.pubertykit.com, 1-800-462-7500.

Looking for a service activity for your members? 4H'ers can work with Joann's (fabric stores) to make afghans for the National Coalition for the Homeless. Connect with a local Joann's store and pick up a packet of afghan squares and put them together into a completed afghan. Members can also knit or crochet squares.

8. In the News

Impact of Television Watching During Meals (Source: Take 5 for a Nutrition Update).
Researchers at Tufts University examined the effect of television viewing during mealtimes and food consumption by kids in grads 4, 5, and 6. They compared children in families in which the TV was usually on during 2 or more meals with those who never had it on or only during one meal. If television viewing was a normal part of the mealtime, children ate more pizza, salty snacks and soda pop. They ate less grains, green and yellow vegetables, potatoes, beans and nuts than children in families in which the TV was off during meals. Television-watching children also ate more red and processed meat, less chicken, eggs and fish and twice as much caffeine. The authors felt that families who turn off the television set, which creates a boundary between private family food culture and the food culture "Relationships between use of television during meals and children's food consumption patterns. For the entire article see Pediatrics Volume 107, No. 1 January 2001, www.pediatrics.org.

Television's Impact on Preschoolers' Food Preferences
Even 30-second commercials have an impact on preschoolers' food preferences. Children ages 2 to 6 were shown a video tape with and without embedded commercials. Children who saw the tape with commercials were much more likely to choose the advertised foods. Just 1 or 2 exposures to a 30-second spot influenced the increased prevalence of childhood obesity. The authors also expressed concern about food messages in other medias, which now includes banner advertisements on Internet Web pages and tagged onto the beginning of children's videos.
(From the Journal of the American Dietetic Association, 101 (1): 42-46, January 2001.)

9. Don't Forget