Maryland Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program Education (SNAP-Ed) is a program within University of Maryland Extension that creates healthier environments and improves the health and wellbeing of limited income families across the state. This program helps local Maryland families lead healthy lives through increased food access, improved nutrition, and physical activity. Through partnerships with state and community organizations across Maryland, SNAP-Ed provides comprehensive programs, which consist of delivering nutrition education and cultivating policy, system, and environmental-level changes.
SNAP-Ed programs introduce children and adults to healthy options and provide them with the skills and knowledge to make healthy choices. Further, SNAP-Ed works with local partners to foster or strengthen policies, systems, and environments that support families’ healthy choices. SNAP-Ed works directly with individual sites to impact change, while also establishing more expansive partnerships at the state, district, agency, or county level in order to broaden reach across numerous sites within a system. SNAP-Ed collaborates closely with over 650 partner organizations to design programs that meet the needs of clients where they live, work and learn. Partners include community sites that serve families including youth education sites such as schools, early education centers, and out of school programs, as well as food access sites such as food pantries and farmers’ markets and farm stands. Nutrition education programs available to youth and adult audiences consist of hands-on activities including gardening, food preparation and tasting opportunities. SNAP-Ed complements those educational programs with site and system-level efforts aimed to create a healthier environment by bringing more nutritious food and beverage options as well as increased physical activity opportunities, resources and marketing to participants.
SNAP-Ed provides nutrition education programs at youth sites across Maryland, reaching children and their families. Programs work to establish a healthier cafeteria environment, a greater connection to local food access including farms, on-site gardens and food pantries, as well as supporting teachers in providing access to water, healthy celebrations and physical activity resources for the school community.
Comprehensive educational programming at food access sites helps farmers and food pantries make operational changes that support shoppers’ healthy choices. SNAP-Ed works with food pantry collaborators to increase procurement and promotion of healthy food options, including maximizing local produce donations, gardening efforts, and education and tasting of nutritious recipes. SNAP-Ed connects local farmers and farmers’ markets with low income Marylanders to increase access to locally grown fruits and vegetables and maximize benefit redemption on healthy food options. SNAP-Ed supports farmers with marketing and promotion efforts, facilitating EBT acceptance at markets and farm stands, and fostering community connections.
