Author: Janice Berriault

Kim Gans receives grant from US Dept of Health and Human Services

Kim GansProfessor Kim Gans received a five-year, $3 million grant from the US Department of Health and Human Services, Administration For Community Living, Administration on Aging Innovations in Nutrition Programs and Services entitled “Evaluating the impact and sustainability of enhanced home-delivered meal program services on older adults’ health and well-being”. Kim is Co-PI of this grant along with Caitlin Caspi from Allied Health and Meg Grady, Director of Meals on Wheels Rhode Island. The goal of the project is to implement and test the effectiveness of an enhanced Home-Delivered Meals service delivery approach that includes community health worker interactions and supplemental healthy grocery bags to address diet quality, food and nutrition security, loneliness, and health-related quality of life for older adults.

Exploring Conservation and Sustainability with Preschoolers

Exploring Conservation and Sustainability with Preschoolers Experiential Learning: Anne Bladen is teaching HDFS 2142E: Exploring Conservation and Sustainability with Preschoolers for the first time this semester in Storrs. The class focuses on developing an ecological identity and how to engage young children in conservation and sustainability projects.  Among other assignments, students complete 6 “Nature Immersions,” visit Mirror Lake to discuss Ecological Kinship and explore hands-on activities with different natural materials such as sunflowers, milkweed and pumpkins.  20 students, from a variety of departments and majors, spend 3 hours each week in the preschool classrooms at the Child Labs where they discover that it’s never too early to develop a relationship with nature.