Classes on nutrition to support development of child and adult care professionals will be held throughout the year at the Texas AgriLife Extension Service offices, 3355 Cherry Ridge Dr. in San Antonio. The next classes will be Feb. 11 and March 29. (Texas AgriLife Extension Service photo)
SAN ANTONIO – The Texas AgriLife Extension Service office in northwest San Antonio will be the site for free nutrition classes in February and March offered for professionals participating in the Child and Adult Care Feeding Program.
“Nutrition classes have been scheduled for the San Antonio area, which provide support and training to child-care centers that participate in the CACFP,” said Dr. Connie Sheppard, AgriLife Extension family and consumer sciences agent for Bexar County.
Sheppard said classes in menu planning, nutritious snacks, kitchen math, food buying and more will be held throughout the year in Suite 208 of AgriLife Extension offices, located at 3355 Cherry Ridge Dr. in the Conroy Office Complex. Classes are sponsored jointly with the Texas Department of Agriculture and focus on the “three E’s” of healthy living – education, exercise and eating right.
“For the near-term, we want to make people aware of those free classes to be offered at our offices in February and March,” Sheppard said. “However, we also want them to know that we will have additional classes at our location throughout the year.”
Two classes are scheduled on Feb. 11, she said. The first, “Menu Planning for Child Care,” will be from 8:30 a.m. to noon and the second, “Planning Nutritious Snacks,” will be from 1-4:30 p.m.
At the menu planning class, attendees will receive tools and recommendations that will help them plan “child-care reimbursable nutritious, economical and delicious meals,” Sheppard said. The class also provides 3.5 clock-hour credits toward professional child-care certification.
The nutritious snacks class will provide a “team approach” to meeting the nutritional needs of children in child-care facilities, she added. Attendees will be shown how to develop snack menus that meet U.S. Department of Agriculture meal pattern requirements and Texas Department of Agriculture recommendations. This class also offers 3.5 credits toward certification.
The “Feeding Infants” workshop will be presented from 9 a.m. – 4 p.m. on March 29, Sheppard said.
“This workshop is designed to give participants information on nutritious meals meeting USDA infant meal pattern requirements, as well as guidance on infant needs, food safety and sanitation,” she said.
Sheppard said class attendees are welcome to bring a brown bag lunch or to eat at one of several restaurants in the vicinity of the AgriLife Extension office.
For more information on these and other upcoming nutrition classes in the San Antonio area, contact Sheppard at 210-467-6575 or csheppar@ag.tamu.edu.
To register for one or more of these classes, go to the TDA Learning Management System website at http://lms.tda.state.tx.us/stc/training. For questions about registering through the TDA website, email FNDTrainingUnit@TexasAgriculture.gov or call 512-475-0586.
Sheppard noted that information on additional nutrition classes offered throughout the year at the AgiLife Extension office for Bexar County can be found on the TDA website.
Seating for all these classes is limited, so there may not be room for walk-in participants, said class coordinators.
It’s important that attendees register through the Learning Management System site, coordinators said, and walk-ins will need to present their CACFP contract number.
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