Partnership for Food Safety Education

FightBAC!

A Full Year of Food Safety

New Jersey Calendar Contest Reaches Students and Food Handlers

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Jeanne Garbarino and her fellow BAC Fighters from New Jersey’s Vineland Food Safety Council and the Vineland Health Department are passionate about keeping their city food safe. Last fall, they launched the 2014 food safety calendar contest to make sure students and retail food establishments receive an annual supply of food safety tips.

The BAC Fighters invited 1st – 12thgrade students to design posters about the importance of food safety. Each grade level was given a different category to focus on:

  •     Grades 1-5: The importance of hand washing when handling food.
  •     Grade 6: Minimum cooking temperature requirements for different foods.
  •     Grade 7: Temperature requirements for holding food safely.
  •     Grade 8: Cooling foods safely.
  •     Grades 9-12: Foodborne pathogens and illnesses.

The Food Safety Council and Health Department chose 12 winning posters (one from each grade level) for printing in the final 2014 calendar. Once printed, they sent the calendar to more than 400 food establishments in the city where they will be viewed by food handlers on a daily basis!

This contest is a unique way to teach Vineland students and food handlers valuable food safety information. Great work fighting BAC®, Vineland, New Jersey!

 

Eat Well and Play Hard

Shari Portnoy brings healthy eating messages to Brooklyn Kids

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Shari Portnoy works hard to bring nutrition, fitness, and food safety information to daycare centers in Brooklyn, New York as part of the Eat Well Play Hard in Child Care Settings program. Eat Well Play Hard aims to provide consistent and positive messages about eating healthy foods and being physically active to three and four year old children and their parents.

Recently, Shari used Fight BAC!® materials and posters to teach a group of 35 about food safety. She designed her class to facilitate discussion with parents. First, they collected snacks from tables Shari had set up beforehand. These weren’t just snacks – they were learning tools! Shari then asked the parents to make observations about the food and a discussion began that transitioned into an important food safety lesson.

Thank you, Shari for bringing important Fight BAC!® messages to Brooklyn kids, parents, and daycare staff!

Shari Portnoy is a Registered Dietitian (RD) and Certified Fitness Trainer (CFT) you can read more about her here: http://www.foodlabelnutrition.com/about.html#bio.

 

 

Student Health Educators

Connecticut BAC Fighters inform entire school

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Julia Cronin planned a middle school class project that ensured food safety information was spread beyond the walls of her classroom to the entire K- 8 student body of Integrated Day Charter School in Norwich, Connecticut.

Julia, a science teacher, partnered with an english/language arts teacher to have students create Food Safety/Food Choice information brochures. The students used information they learned in class and from online research to create the brochures. One of their favorite sources was the fightbac.org website! Once the brochures were created, the students were instructed to share information with their classmates. In this way, the 8th grade students were able to reach their peers and younger classmates.

Julia reflected on the project, “The best part of it all was watching them in the lunchroom teaching the younger students about why they needed to wash their hands and why they should include an ice-pack in their lunchbox.”

She found that once students learned what could happen when food is mishandled, they had ownership of the material and were more motivated to make changes.

 

BAC Fighter Reaches Kids and Restaurant Workers

Food Safety Instructor Commits to Reaching Multiple Audiences

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BAC Fighter, Sujit Dey is committed to sharing food safety messages with multiple audiences. As a food safety instructor for the U.S. Embassy in Dhaka, Bangladesh, Sujit teaches food safety at local schools and restaurants.

In his outreach with kids, Sujit focuses on handwashing. He visits local educational institutions to demonstrate proper practices. Both students and parents take home valuable lessons in hand hygiene.

He also recently taught a food safety course for chefs, managers, and restaurant workers of 15 Dhaka – area restaurants. The day long course covered how to prepare, cook, serve, and store food safely.

Thanks Sujit for sharing food safety and hand hygiene messages!

 

Bremer County, Iowa 4-H Learns Safe Food Handling

Moriah and Reba, two high school students from the Bremer County, Iowa Tri-River Trendsetters 4-H Club used Fight BAC! materials to teach thirteen young Cloverbuds about food safety. The Cloverbuds got a kick out of the BAC story – Moriah and Reba used silly voices to tell a story about harmful foodborne bacteria. Moriah and Reba went the extra mile, making a coloring book for each child in the group.

Moriah will use what she learned about the core four food safety practices in the upcoming 4-H fair when she submits a project on food safety. The Partnership for Food Safety Education salutes Moriah and Reba for their work to Fight BAC!

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