Here’s a video message from one of your fellow BAC Fighters:
Trasca Mason is an Environmental Health Specialist from McDonough, Georgia. She reaches about 6,700 people a year with food safety messages. Of those 6,700 people, 90% say they will provide more food safety training for children and parents. Trasca stays motivated because she knows her food safety education work saves lives. Excellent work, Trasca. Keep on Fighting BAC! ®
If you are a BAC Fighter you might recall our contest last summer to find America’s Top BAC Fighter!
Well, are you ready to meet him? America’s Top BAC Fighter is Trevor Daneker (featured above) and he works at the Rhode Island Community Food Bank! Trevor teaches a class called Community Cooking for pantries, shelters, and soup kitchens around Rhode Island. The program focuses on teaching food safety, nutrition, and eating healthy on a budget. Congratulations on winning our grand prize, Trevor!
Natasha M. Shamone-Gilmore is a BAC Fighter and the Co-Founder/Executive Director of the Maryland Resource and Training Center, a nonprofit organization. They focus on strengthening communities by providing wraparound social services and programs to individuals and families based on the four pillars of civic learning and engagement, youth empowerment, leadership, and economic independence.
Part of their service includes a food safety prep class where Natasha teaches students about proper food temperatures, parasites and contaminants. She also helps get them ready for their certified professional food manager exams.
Thanks Natasha for getting future Maryland food managers prepped on food safety!
My go-to food safety educational game for open houses and health fairs is my refrigerator game. When you only have a minute or two with people, I’ve learned you have to make food safety eye-catching, interactive, and understandable for young kids to older adults.
I made my own mini-refrigerator out of junk Styrofoam and rubber. I have my audience role a dice, and if the number is positive or negative I’ll ask them to tell me one way food was stored correctly or incorrectly in the refrigerator.
Most people walk away learning that you shouldn’t keep your eggs in the refrigerator door despite how most refrigerator are designed, and that an appliance thermometer is important to have. My audience also learns that the refrigerator should be 40°F or lower, and that meat should be wrapped and placed on a lower shelf.
About the author:
Shauna Henley works for the University of Maryland Extension as a Family & Consumer Sciences educator. She focuses on teaching food safety, nutrition, and physical activity to the great Baltimore community.
Suzanne Driessen, a BAC Fighter with University of Minnesota Extension works online to make sure food is safe from farm to plate!
The renewed interest to grow and purchase local foods quadrupled requests for University of Minnesota Extension food preservation classes. To meet the increased demand with limited human resource capacity, Suzanne Driessen, Food Safety Extension Educator, created 22 five-minute online Food Preservation Mini-Modules. More than 10,246 home preservers have viewed modules. Viewership is global with viewers from Australia, Canada and Germany.
100% of participants indicate use of Internet technology is a good way to receive food preservation information.
View the mini-modules at http://www1.extension.umn.edu/food-safety/preserving/modules/.