Engaging Low-Income Families through Social Media

The Food and Nutrition Education in Communities (FNEC) unit of DNS established social media outlets in 2016 to extensively share nutrition information with current and past Expanded Food and Nutrition Education Program (EFNEP) participants and anyone who has an interest. Social media outlets include the Day to Day Eats Blog, Adopting Healthy Habits Facebook page, Instagram, and Pinterest. During the summer of 2023, the student will collaborate with FNEC, EFNEP, and CCE staff to create content for multiple social media platforms to reach current and past EFNEP participants and anyone with an interest in nutrition. The student will work to enhance the reach of each social media platform and investigate needs of the target audience primarily through meeting and collaborating with identified CCE staff. This internship and collaboration will provide valuable experience, skills, and a working knowledge of the value of social media and provide a benefit to the student and CCE community. 

Roles and responsibilities 

The student will be responsible for drafting weekly blogs and posts for Day to Day Eats blog, Facebook, and Instagram. Initial groundwork to ascertain preferences from EFNEP participants and CCE staff will inform the nature and content of these drafts. This will require critical thinking, analysis, and a connection to EFNEP Nutrition Educators and program participants. The student will help to meet the needs of EFNEP participants in a way that EFNEP and CCE staff do not have the time or resources to address. Weekly meetings will be scheduled and mandatory for the student to attend to provide updates and to discuss projects, in addition to a weekly reflection. 

Qualifications and previous coursework

This opportunity is available to students in Cornell University's College of Human Ecology.

Learning outcomes 

The student will learn how to translate academic, scientific nutrition and health-related information that can be easily understood by the public while working collaboratively with campus staff, regional EFNEP staff, EFNEP nutrition educators, CCE staff, and EFNEP participants. The student will analyze and learn best practices for sharing content via social media handles to best meet the needs of the EFNEP audience. At the conclusion of this internship, the student will complete a critical reflection for their learning outcomes based on their experience that includes an analysis, conclusions, and action steps for the campus and CCE team to pursue.