Acknowledgements

1. Promoting Food Budgeting Skills in Durham Region:The Discover Your Inner Chef!Communication Campaign Presented by: Deborah Lay, RD, PHNt

2. Acknowledgements • Community Food Security Working Group: • Jazin Bond, PHNN Manager • Deborah Lay, PHNt • Rebecca Rew, PHN • Agnes Tynski, PHN • Zainab Lulat, UOIT Nursing Student • Epidemiology & Evaluation Unit: • Kathy Moran, Epidemiologist • Gloria Duke-Aluko, Epidemiology Student • Funding: • GTA Cancer Prevention and Screening Network and Cancer Care Ontario • External Partners

3. Presentation Objectives • Describe Food Insecurity in Durham Region • Describe Target Audience • Share DYIC! Campaign, Objectives & Evaluation Results • Share Current Directions

4. Food Security What is food security? Food security exists when all people, at all times, have physical and economic access to sufficient, safe and nutritious food to meet their dietary needs and food preference for an active and healthy life • In 2008,12% of households in Durham Region were food insecure • Food insecurity increases as household income decreases • Households with children experience more food insecurity; particularly lone-parent families (Source: Facts on Food Insecurity in Durham Region 2010. Available on www.durham.ca)

5. Health Department Responsibility Durham Region Health Department addresses food security in 2 ways: • Monitoring the cost of food annually through the Nutritious Food Basket • Assisting vulnerable populations to develop food skills

6. Target Audience • As outlined in the Ontario Public Health Standards guidance document, all members of the community should be targeted for food skills development with priority populations being a focus. • Through our review of the literature, use of The Health Communication Unit’s Twelve Steps to Developing a Health Communication Campaign, collaboration with Epidemiology & Evaluation Unit Staff and assessment of the community, our target audience was identified to be:Low-income Single Mothers • This group is at highest risk for food insecurity

7. Discover Your Inner Chef! Campaign Purpose: • To support Durham Region residents - especially low income single mothers - with food budgeting skills

8. Discover Your Inner Chef! Campaign Components: • Awareness • Education • Skill Building • Assessment

9. Discover Your Inner Chef! Campaign Sub-Messages: • Canada’s Food Guide offers healthy choices to maximize your food budget and save! • Planning ahead helps you control your food budget and save! • Shop smart… get to know your grocery store and save! • Discover your inner chef… cook at home and save! • Use your leftovers to create something new and save!

10. Campaign Objectives #1 Campaign Launch Day Objective: To determine the extent to which participants of the Discover Your Inner Chef! Launch Day were satisfied with food budgeting information and activities provided during the event. #2 Food Budget Kit Dissemination Strategy Objective: To determine baseline estimates of the socio-demographic characteristics of Durham Region residents of any age who register for the Food Budget Kit and the frequency of using the various dissemination strategies. #3 Food Budget Kit Process Evaluation Objective: To determine the usefulness of the Food Budget Kit tools and resources in Durham Region households that ordered the kit.

11. Methodology Objective #1: • Self-completed evaluation forms distributed and completed at the Launch Day in October 2009 Objective #2: • Web-based demographic survey administered from October 2009 to May 2010 Objective #3: • Mail-back Food Budget Kit surveys from May to August 2010 and one focus group conducted in July 2010

12. Objective #1 Results

13. Launch Day Results • 21 self-completed evaluation forms were completed at the Launch Day in October 2009 • 90% of respondents to the evaluation felt more confident to cook at home after this event • 67% of respondents thought the Launch Day was excellent and the information provided was very useful • A few comments from what they learned: • “Step out of your comfort zone and try new things” • “I learned about more inexpensive food” • “I learned that there are a lot of resources in Oshawa”

14. Objective #2 Results

15. Discover Your Inner Chef! Food Budget Kit

16. Dissemination Strategy Results • 528 web-based demographic surveys completed from October 2009 to May 2010 • Of these, 57 respondents called the DHCL for a Food Budget Kit and the same survey was administered over the phone by a Public Health Nurse

17. Respondents by Gender N = 323

18. Respondents by Marital Status N = 322 Single 42% Married 58%

19. Children in Household N = 320 Without Children 34% With Children 66%

20. How did individuals discover the Food Budget Kit? N = 332

21. Summary of Objective #2 Results Reaching our Target Audience • 84% female • 42% single • 66% have one or more children at home • 41% have household income <$50,000 • 21% have a household income below the LICO Supporting our Dissemination Strategy • 76% discovered/ordered the Food Budget Kit online

22. Objective #3 Results

23. Process Evaluation Results • 49 mail-back Food Budget Kit surveys from May to August 2010 and one focus group conducted with 9 participants in July 2010 • 2500 Food Budget Kits mailed out to Durham Region residents since launch

24. Food Budget Kit Usefulness

25. Summary of Objective #3 Results • Did people find the kits useful? • Yes! 84% of people rated the kit as useful or very useful • 100% of people would recommend the kit to family or friends • Items identified as most useful: • Everybody’s Food Budget Book • Canned food strainer • Menu planner, Canada’s Food Guide, measuring spoons, budget-wise pantry list • Items identified as least useful: • Quit Smoking brochure • Eat Right Ontario magnet • Leftover labels

26. Summary of Objective #3 Results • What skills did the kit help to develop? • When asked if the respondent performed a particular skill more often, the same or less often after using the kit, the greatest % of “more often” responses were related to the following skills: • Plan out my meals • Use Canada’s Food Guide • Use spices/herbs to season my meals

27. Current Directions of the Discover Your Inner Chef! Campaign

28. Assessing clients for food needs • The DYIC! assessment resource for food security/food skills will help you to ask questions to identify your clients’ food needs. Then provide resources to them based on their needs

29. Discover Your Inner Chef! Online Learning Modules • The Online Learning Modules for food budgeting are now available live @ www.durham.ca/foodbudgetkit to refer clients to • These modules were designed to assist clients to develop knowledge and skill (in combination with the Food Budget Kit) in the area of food budgeting • The target audience for these modules are low income adults

30. Discover Your Inner Chef! Online Learning Modules www.durham.ca/foodbudgetkit • Supportive resources to promote and refer clients to the modules: • Tear-off stands • Social assistance cheque inserts • Posters

31. Discover Your Inner Chef! Food Budgeting Curriculum • Designed for Facilitator delivery of content of the online modules in a group setting • Especially groups who may have a need for addressing food security or food skills • Pre-packaged binder with content, handouts, DVD with PowerPoints, activities and more! • Organizations who implement the curriculum with groups will be able to order class sets of Food Budget Kits

32. Discover Your Inner Chef! Stakeholders Symposium • Showcase new campaign resources and obtain feedback • Test campaign resources with stakeholders • Identify campaign supports needed • Share health dept. nutrition resources

33. Thank you!Questions?