Understanding the Barriers and Facilitators of Participation in the Expanded Food and Nutrition Education Program

The Food and Nutrition Education in Communities (FNEC) unit of the Division of Nutritional Sciences administers the EFNEP, which provides nutrition education in a series of 8-10 lessons to limited resource families. EFNEP educators are in 16 CCE Associations across New York State. Preliminary analysis of EFNEP 2024 data has identified variation in program enrollment and completion based on participants’ residence type and other factors such as race-ethnicity. Through this project, the CCE Summer Intern will collaborate with FNEC and staff from CCE of Rensselaer County to conduct stakeholder interviews designed to identify the barriers and facilitators of EFNEP enrollment, participation and completion.

The intern will observe EFNEP education being delivered in Rensselaer County or other nearby locations, such as Schenectady, Schoharie, and/or Orange Counties, to ensure understanding of the program and educational series.
 

Roles and responsibilities 

Working under the guidance of FNEC and CCE Rensselaer EFNEP leadership, the CCE Summer Intern will meet with supervisors (weekly), program staff, community partners, and eligible program participants throughout the project. The intern will complete a literature review, complete an IRB application, design interview guides, identify and recruit interview participants, and conduct interviews with program partners, participants and eligible participants to understand the changes experienced since 2020. The intern will identify the barriers to and facilitators for enrolling in, participating in, and completing an EFNEP education series. The intern will analyze collected data, summarize the findings and make recommendations to FNEC and CCE Rensselaer.

Qualifications and previous coursework

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

• The successful intern should have interest in public health and/or community engagement, experience working with diverse, limited resource audiences, and should have some basic qualitative evaluation knowledge. 
• Qualitative methods experience is preferred and could include courses such as NS2450 or CPR2200.
• The selected intern will be required to drive on behalf of the summer project and must have reliable transportation

Learning outcomes 

After completing this internship, the CCE summer intern will be able to:

• Describe the value of EFNEP to limited resource participants and potential partners using findings from the interviews conducted.
• Identify and develop recommendations to overcome barriers and maximize facilitators to enrollment and participation in EFNEP.
• Collect relevant qualitative evaluation data at EFNEP series education.
• Propose EFNEP delivery modifications to improve program completion rates.