“Smart Kids Fight BAC!” an educational program that uses animated video, activity books and a picture book to teach children in kindergarten through third grade basic food safety skills, has won first place in the Food Safety Award category from the National Extension Association of Family and Consumer Sciences. The program also captured second place in the Educational Curriculum category.

Led by Dr. Judy Harrison, associate professor of foods and nutrition and Extension foods specialist, participating FACS Extension agents included Peggy Blesoe, Nancy Bridges, Susan Culpepper, Gloria Drawdy, Lori Howard, Dana Lynch, Joann Milam, and Debbie Purvis. Others involved in the project included Bob Molleur, Extension editor of visual communications, and Susan Conley of the USDA Food Safety and Inspection Service in Washington, D.C.

The multi-state project was funded by the Cooperative State Research, Education and Extension Service, U.S. Department of Agriculture.

The animated video program uses the premise of a group of school children becoming sick from picnic food. The school’s drama class develops a four-act play highlighting the four key Fight BAC! (bacteria) messages — clean, separate, cook and chill — as a way of preventing future incidents of foodborne illness.

Initial results have shown that children who are taught using the program showed significant improvement in their knowledge of the food-handling concepts. The program has been distributed to Extension food safety contacts throughout the United States and U.S. territories and is available for purchase.

For more information, call Judy Harrison at
706/542-3773 or email her at judyh@arches.uga.edu.

Low-income Georgians and young people in 14 middle Georgia counties will soon have access to a new consumer financial literacy program.

The program is funded by a $290,000 grant from the Governor’s Office of Consumer Affairs to the College of Family and Consumer Sciences at the University of Georgia.

“The College of Family and Consumer Sciences has a solid track record in the area of financial literacy programs,” said Bill Cloud, spokesman for the governor’s consumer affairs office. “The Governor’s Office still believes that the informed consumer is the best protection from being wronged in the marketplace and we hope that this program will become a model so that in time we will have the best informed and educated consumers in the nation.”

During the coming year, two FACS educational program specialists and five assistants will be hired to provide the educational program, according to Dr. Brenda Cude, head of the FACS Department of Housing and Consumer Sciences.

According to Michael Rupured, a consumer economics specialist with the College’s Extension program, the program will have four parts.

“About 30 percent of the program will focus on adults who earn up to 200 percent of the poverty level,” he says. “For a family of four, that would mean an income of about $36,000. We plan to enroll these adults in a program for about nine months to ensure they gain a thorough understanding of both consumer issues and financial literacy issues.”

Another 30 percent of the program will focus on adolescents in all of the counties.

“For young people, we hope to work with the schools and other organizations, introducing programs such as the High School Financial Planning Program and the Financial Champions program,” said Patrice Dollar, a financial management specialist who focuses on programs for adolescents.

Twenty percent of the program will focus on basic taxpayer education.

“Since welfare reform, most financial assistance has shifted to the working poor in the form of tax credits,” Rupured said. “However, if people fail to file or don’t know how to accurately fill out the tax forms, they miss out on these benefits.”

The final 20 percent of the program will include a range of opportunities for citizens in the targeted counties, including sessions for the general public on money management and fraud protection.

Counties benefiting from the program include: Bleckley, Emmanuel, Dodge, Telfair, Toombs, Johnson, Laurens, Pulaski, Wilcox, Candler, Jeff Davis, Montgomery, Treutlen, and Wheeler.

For more information on this program, call Rupured at 706/583-0054 or email him at mrupured@arches.uga.edu. nExtension Agent; Madeline Glover, FACS Extension Agent; and (Kneeling) Mandy Sheffield, 4-H Extension Agent.

Dr. Ian Hardin, head of the Department of Textiles, Merchandising and Interiors was named an honorary professor of Donghua University in Shanghai, China during ceremonies at the university on September 14.

Hardin was recognized for his research accomplishments, international reputation and his work with Chinese universities throughout his career.

Since 1987, Hardin has been to China seven times, providing lectures at universities in Shanghai, Hangzhou, Beijing, Xian, Dalian, Suzhou.

During his most recent visit, Hardin provided a series of lectures on work conducted by himself and other TMI researchers on the use of particular enzymes in textile production that degrade in a way that has less impact on the environment as opposed to conventional organic and inorganic chemicals. He also discussed research on ways of cleaning up textile waste effluents in environmentally friendly ways. The TMI department is a leader in this area of research in the United States.