Oceana County
Oceana County Extension
210 Johnson Street,
Hart, MI 49420 / P: 231-873-2129
F: 231-873-3710 / E-mail:

Web: msue.msu.edu/Oceana

October 2005

Oceana County youths learn healthy lifestyles

Oceana MSU Extension Council members expressed concerns about the national obesity trend.
Council members believe that healthy eating and exercise habits need to be developed early in life to prevent life-long obesity problems.
They instructed the Oceana MSU Extension Family and Consumer Sciences Program to make teaching children healthy lifestyles a priority issue new programming.
Irma Hernandez, the Family Nutrition Program (FNP) instructor, and Joy Hamilton, Oceana County 4-H educator, have acted on the Extension Council’s directions by using a part of the Family Nutrition Program’s curriculum and materials from the United Dairy Industry of Michigan (UDIM) to teach healthy life-styles to elementary students in the Hart and Shelby school systems.
Hernandez and Hamilton visited Thomas Read Elementary in Shelby to conduct presentations to classes ranging from Head Start to the fifth grade. Lessons were based on the United States Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) food pyramid and the FNP fitness program.
During the summer months they worked with the Hart Public Schools’ Summer School Program. Six lessons were taught during four classroom visits with eight groups of children for a total of 32 classroom visits. In total, their work with the Hart School System reached 136 children from second through eighth grades. / In addition to nutrition and physical activity they also covered food safety, an additional area of concern in building a healthy life style.
The response to these programs by the participants was very positive. The teenagers stated that they had never really noticed how many servings of various foods they were actually eating.
They had an opportunity to measure how much of a helping of cereal they pour into a bowl and then measure an actual serving. Some of the students were serving themselves two to two and half servings for breakfast. Many of them were quite surprised by this.
The “Fast Food Order” Lesson also had a very positive impact on students in the older grades. Many of them stated that they will choose at least one healthy food choice when eating out. After participating in the lesson they said they would choose things like milk, juice, salad or grilled foods instead of the fried foods they had chosen previously.
Michigan State University Extension helps people improve their lives through an educational process that applies knowledge to critical issues, needs and opportunities. Offices in counties across the state link the research of the land-grant university, MSU, to challenges facingcommunities. Citizens serving on county Extension councils regularly help select focus areas for programming. MSU Extension is funded jointly by county boards of commissioners,the state through Michigan State University and federally through the US Department of Agriculture.

Hart kitchen incubator preparing to open

The Hart kitchen incubator is nearly ready to open its doors. When it does, area farmers and entrepreneurs will have a place to test new products and recipes that could ultimately lead to new businesses and jobs for western Michigan.
Ron Steiner, MSU Extension regional value-added educator, has helped organize a non-profit corporation to manage the incubator, under contract with Michigan Integrated Food and Farming Systems (MIFFS), the organization that received a federal grant from the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) to fund the entity.
Through his efforts a building has been leased and renovation of that building is underway. Staff members have also been hired to provide secretarial and managerial duties.
The first program scheduled for the new incubator, called “The Starting Block” will be held on Nov. 4. At this and other programs, growers and other agricultural entrepreneurs with ideas for new products or companies will receive education and guidance in making their new business successful.
The Hart incubator is one of six sites throughout the state where continuing entrepreneurship education will be offered by the MSU Product Center for Agriculture and Natural Resources. Its existence should help improve western Michigan’s leadership in food processing and agricultural innovation.

Renaissance zone will add local jobs, investments

Because agricultural processing is very important to the local economy, the Oceana County MSU Extension Council has identified agricultural renaissance zones as a critical issue for Oceana MSU Extension personnel to address.
Ron Steiner worked with staff members from the Oceana Economic Development Corporation and Michigan Economic Development Corporation to help Chase Farms, a fruit and vegetable processing operation in Walkerville, on an application for one of the remaining Agricultural Renaissance Zones.
Gov. Granholm announced that the application was approved in October.
The Walkerville Renaissance Zone is Oceana County’s fourth and is expected to create 55 new jobs and add $21 million in private investment to our economy during the 10-year life of the zone. /

MSU Extension helps asparagus growers gain global perspective

Norm Myers, Oceana County MSU Extension Director, received a grant from the MSU Extension Vegetable Area of Expertise Team to attend the XI International Asparagus Conference in the Netherlands with a member of the local asparagus industry.
This meeting, held in June, brings together leading asparagus scientists around the world to report on cutting-edge research.
Information that Myers and John Bakker, Michigan Asparagus Advisory Board Executive Director from Hart, received and will be reported on to Michigan asparagus growers at the 2006 Oceana Asparagus Day program, set for March 9, 2006. Practices and topics that will be highlighted include irrigation, deep tillage, seed production, crown production and new varieties.

MSU Extension Staff

Norm Myers, County Extension Director
Mira Danilovich, District Horticulture/Marketing
& Fruit ICM Extension Educator
Ron Steiner, Regional Entrepreneurship
Educator
N. Joy Hamilton, 4-H Program Supervisor
Irma Hernandez, Family Nutrition Program
Educator
Kathy Walicki, Office Manager
Toni VanBergen, 4-H/FNP Secretary
Judie Burmeister, Office Assistant
MSU is an affirmative-action, equal opportunity institution, Michigan State University Extension programs and materials are open to all without regard to race, color, national origin, gender, religion, age, disability, political beliefs, sexual orientation, marital status, or family status. Issued in furtherance of MSU Extension work, acts of May 8 and June 30, 1914, in cooperation with the U.S. Department of Agriculture, Thomas G. Coon, Extension Director, Michigan State University, E. Lansing, MI 48824