Glenda Pereira: 00:00
Welcome to the Maine Farmcast. This is your host, Dr. Glenda Pereira, an assistant professor at the University of Maine and the dairy specialist for the University of Maine Cooperative Extension. For today, we’re gonna be talking about food. But I just, if you’re hungry, go get a snack now. Prepare yourselves so you don’t get more hungry throughout the episode.
Glenda Pereira: 00:21
But I have an awesome guest here with us today. We have Alex Gayton, and she’s gonna introduce herself to our listeners because she’s a new featured guest on the Maine Farmcast. But she’s part of our team here at the University of Maine Extension. So Alex, without further ado, tell the listeners a little bit about yourself.
Alex Gayton: 00:38
Sure. Hi, everyone. My name is Alex and I work for the UMaine Extension Program called EFNEP. It stands for the Expanded Food and Nutrition Education Program. And I’m the assistant coordinator and our social media coordinator.
Alex Gayton: 00:52
On top of that, I’m also a registered dietitian. So that’s kind of my background that I went to school for.
Glenda Pereira: 00:57
Are you a UMaine alum?
Alex Gayton: 00:58
I am. Yeah. I went to undergrad at UMaine and then I did my master’s with the University of Rhode Island online and my dietetic internship with Sodexo.
Glenda Pereira: 01:08
Very cool. Yeah. So a lot of folks may not know what EFNEP is. Tell us what this program entails.
Alex Gayton: 01:15
Sure. Yeah. So EFNEP is the nation’s first nutrition education program. And EFNEP provides nutrition education to limited-income adults with children in the household, young adults, and also youth ages five to 18. And we currently have four community education assistants who are the boots on the ground in the community.
Alex Gayton: 01:34
We have four, so there are two in Aroostook County, and we have one in Kennebec County and York County. And they’re the people doing the direct education with their community members. My role is to supervise two of the staff that are in Aroostook County. We reach out to different families, and we’re trying to educate them about nutrition and health and just overall how can you teach your children or your family about healthy eating and cooking and shopping on a budget. So those are some of the big topics.
Alex Gayton: 02:04
And food safety, there’s always so much to learn about with food, and we could always keep educating. But, yeah, they do a lot of great work.
Glenda Pereira: 02:10
You guys have a presence in all of Maine, and other states do as well with their programs. But I always see you guys out and about doing education, handing out a ton of good information, especially about food safety, which, right, is a big component of healthy eating. So, mhmm. We always think about the recipe side.
Glenda Pereira: 02:29
There’s a ton more information that goes into it, and we’ve covered just a tinge of food safety here on the podcast. So you guys do the extension of, alright. We have this food now. How do we get it on the table? How do folks learn a little bit more about how to make a moderate and nutritious diet with all of the ingredients, especially ingredients produced here in Maine.
Glenda Pereira: 02:49
I know we’ll maybe touch on how you guys integrate what’s in season here in Maine into the recipes and other educational programming that you share. I wanted to veer into this social media piece. Something you mentioned was that your target audience is families and potentially young adults.
Alex Gayton: 03:06
Yes.
Glenda Pereira: 03:07
And you have to be on social media to connect with those folks.
Alex Gayton: 03:12
Exactly. Yep. Yep. So when I started this role about five years ago, the big part of my job was to do our social media and get it up and running. We started with a Facebook page, and that was running for a while.
Alex Gayton: 03:24
And I really dove into Instagram. So that was kind of the newest social media at the time. And now we’re also on TikTok, which we’re still learning that platform and understanding that platform. It’s been really fun, but just the transition over time with social media, as a lot of people know, is it’s always changing and you have to be current with what people wanna watch. For a long time, I resisted the reels and short video content because it’s just a whole other layer of understanding for social media.
Alex Gayton: 03:50
But we’re really into the Reels now. My face is all over our social media, which is exciting and something new to do. But people want to see that short video content. That’s kind of where we’re focusing on now too. A big part of what I do in my job is try to educate through social media.
Alex Gayton: 04:05
Like you said, it’s just a free platform for people to understand more about nutrition and healthy eating and also being a science-based resource. And there’s just a lot of accounts about nutrition out there. And we just wanna make sure we’re a valid resource for people to trust and to learn more about nutrition and healthy eating. It’s been fun. And it’s definitely an experience to learn how to create content that people wanna see.
Alex Gayton: 04:28
And that’s kind of the challenge, I think.
Glenda Pereira: 04:29
Yep. So do you wanna talk about some of the most recent things you’ve shared on there? What are some of the food recipes you’re sharing with folks or some of the things that you’re doing in your programming right now?
Alex Gayton: 04:39
I actually have two student employees right now and they are awesome. And they’re the ones really helping me create the content. Right now we’re really focusing on October. So we’ve been doing a lot of pumpkin recipes. Our website has quite a few of those and the benefits of pumpkin or how do you use pumpkin and, like, what’s the difference between different types of winter squash.
Alex Gayton: 04:59
It’s kind of a fun one to do. I’ve made quite a few reels in the past about that, going to the store and just saying, this is what the squash is. And, like, how can you use this type of squash? So people actually like that content too. And one of the fun ones was one I did last fall, so you can use it again.
Alex Gayton: 05:13
But one I did was just how do you peel a carrot safely? And that got thousands of views, and I just thought this was so funny. I was like, okay. Cool. So that’s what people wanna see.
Alex Gayton: 05:23
How to peel a carrot? But then I’ve been, once, like I said, going to Hannaford and just, like, filming the different squash around and just saying the names of them, and people liked that and saved the content because they’re like, oh, yeah. That’s how I can use acorn squash or butternut squash. We had a fun one that was a tip on how to peel a butternut squash easier by putting it in the microwave and just like, you know, letting it get a little soft and then being able to peel it easier. So just cooking tips and hacks people really like.
Alex Gayton: 05:47
And when they’re short, under thirty seconds, that’s really commonly shared and saved. People tend to like that type of content. And now we’re focusing on around Thanksgiving. So we have a ton of recipes on our website around fall foods, and we have soups and chilies. We have a roast turkey recipe, stuffing, potatoes, kind of everything you could think of.
Alex Gayton: 06:07
It’s on our website. And over time, I’ve been creating recipe videos for those as well to have a visual guide for people that might prefer to learn that way versus just reading a recipe.
Glenda Pereira: 06:17
Yeah. Mhmm. You kind of walked us into the next topic. So, this will be released right around Thanksgiving. And a lot of the foods that folks eat, you can actually find in Maine, right?
Glenda Pereira: 06:28
Potatoes. That’s a Maine food. The squashes, like you mentioned, my husband makes the best apple butternut squash mash. That sounds so good. And it’s really a mash, and the apple just sweetens it up a bit.
Glenda Pereira: 06:43
But that’s everybody’s favorite dish that he makes. What are some things that folks should be thinking about as they near the Thanksgiving season? And maybe they just need to follow you and your team on social media to kind of learn more tips and tricks because I know you’ll cover food safety around the holidays.
Alex Gayton: 07:02
Yes.
Glenda Pereira: 07:02
I think you did a segment last year on, like, how long should we leave things in the fridge for? Correct? Why, etcetera. Because like we mentioned, you’re doing recipes, but you’re also doing, okay. What’s the piece after that, storage time, leaving stuff out on the counter even.
Glenda Pereira: 07:18
Right? You, like, forget food on the counter and then you’re like, alright, let’s go and eat it. And then somebody can be more susceptible to getting sick.
Alex Gayton: 07:25
Mhmm.
Glenda Pereira: 07:25
Exactly. Talk to us about some things to consider during this holiday and the holiday season, really.
Alex Gayton: 07:31
Yeah. Yeah. That’s a great point. I think a lot of things around the holiday that we focus on on social media and just education-wise is, like you said, food safety is a big one. A lot of crock pot things are happening now and potlucks.
Alex Gayton: 07:43
Being aware of keeping your food, if it has to be hot or cold, keeping it in that correct time and temperature zone is important. Not leaving food out for more than the two-hour mark because that’s kind of where that bacteria can grow. Just being aware of how long you keep things out and keeping it cold or hot if you can. And then some other things around the holidays, shopping in season is a big one. Like you’re saying, there are a lot of local foods that you can have for Thanksgiving or for holidays at all.
Alex Gayton: 08:07
There’s plenty of that at your local stores or farmer’s markets or wherever you shop. And that can help you save money in the store too when you’re shopping for those items. So looking for the sales and looking for the deals that are happening are always important to focus on too. And just being creative with cooking in the fall, there’s so many fun flavors and things you can use. And I think it’s just intimidating to choose a new vegetable or food item that you’re interested in, but you don’t know how to cook it.
Alex Gayton: 08:33
There’s just so many resources online now, whether you follow us on social media or our content on our website too. I would love that. But then there’s other extension programs that have lots of how-to guides and recipe ideas of what to do with a food that you have. So if you have an interest in a new food, I would say just try and look it up, buy that squash and see what you can do with it and, you know, have your family test it out. And you can always keep tweaking the recipe and try something new.
Alex Gayton: 08:57
My kids are pretty picky, so it’s hard to get them to try new things. But I’m always like, hey, can you look at it and smell it? Like, what do you smell? What do you see? And just trying to get kids involved.
Alex Gayton: 09:07
If you have kids at home or other family members that maybe don’t cook all the time, getting them involved is also great. It’s a great time to do that in the fall and winter.
Glenda Pereira: 09:16
So what is your favorite fall recipe or even maybe Thanksgiving recipe, yeah, that you share with your family?
Alex Gayton: 09:23
Yeah. That’s a great question. I’m always trying new recipes because I always want variety and rotation. My husband’s kind of the opposite where he’s, like, good with the same thing every time. I really like our ramen noodle skillet.
Alex Gayton: 09:33
That’s one of my favorite recipes I use really often, which seems really basic, but I call it fancy ramen. It’s just ramen noodles, but then you add some veggies to it to bump up the nutrition. You can add protein. So I like tofu in mine. And that’s really my go-to one.
Alex Gayton: 09:48
And like I said, my kids won’t try it and my husband doesn’t really want it, but I like it a lot and it’s easy to make. There’s so many other ones too. It’s hard to really choose.
Glenda Pereira: 09:56
And you said something that I thought was really important. Now that I’m a mom, I realize that kids really wanna be involved. Is that something you and your team also incorporate in your programming, that when you do programming with your EFNEP-focused programs, you’re getting people involved? Maybe they are the ones peeling the vegetables. What are some ways that folks can potentially think about motivating or incorporating their kids and their kids themselves, but even if they’re working with kids in their community to try different food items.
Alex Gayton: 10:30
Yeah. That’s a great question. And I think a lot of people, I know I struggle with that too. And I kind of forget that my kids are also interested in the food that they’re eating and they might wanna be involved. My kids are four and two.
Alex Gayton: 10:41
Trying to figure out things that they can do in the kitchen that are safe and age-appropriate is a big thing for kids. My youngest, I have her help me mix stuff. If I use a potato masher, she’ll help me mash stuff. She’s a huge fan of that. Doing some simple things like measuring.
Alex Gayton: 10:54
You can even teach kids how to measure at this point, pouring things in, measuring flour when you’re baking. I feel like that’s one of the best ones is baking because there are so many opportunities to talk about measurements and they might not grasp it all, but just learning that process and what that looks like and reading through a recipe and just saying, okay, we’re gonna read this next thing. So incorporating the reading piece, helping them look for the numbers, doing some math there too. Depending on the age, my four-year-old loves that stuff. She’s like, okay.
Alex Gayton: 11:21
This is number one, so we need two. She’ll kinda do the math and figure it out, and she loves helping me with that. And we have a little stool thing they can step on, so it’s, you know, safe for them to be up and at the counter with me. Even using a knife, being aware of their age, but my four-year-old, I’ll hold the knife with her and cut stuff. And I talk about doing the bear claw, which means just kind of rolling your finger, putting your fingers back so they don’t get their fingers and talking about how the parts of a knife.
Alex Gayton: 11:47
And even with my two-year-old, I say this part’s sharp. This is the blade. Like, this is the handle where you hold it. And just teaching those basic skills even as early as two is okay. And it’s just based on your comfortability as a parent.
Alex Gayton: 11:58
But for our staff, yeah, they very much do hands-on cooking and education. We do teach a lot of families. And the whole point of teaching them is to be able to help them feel confident and comfortable with nutrition and cooking. But hopefully, they can teach their kids that too. But they also work with kids in schools a lot of the time or sometimes libraries and stuff.
Alex Gayton: 12:17
And if they’re able to and have time, they do cooking pieces or taste testing too. And the kids are always so ecstatic to see them coming into their school. They’re like, oh, miss whoever, like, are you gonna teach us today? And, like, what are we gonna try? And once they get to know you and you’re a familiar face, they get so excited about that.
Alex Gayton: 12:33
So all of the educators in the community, they love going to the schools and teaching the kids because they’re all super excited about it. And a lot of the time, they might not have that experience at home practicing cooking or tasting different foods that maybe they don’t have at home. Right. Really encouraging that. Just letting them see it.
Alex Gayton: 12:48
And like I said earlier, my four-year-old’s a pretty selective eater. So I’ve been trying this new thing. Lots of tactics happening in the parenting world of food, but I try to just put a new food on her plate and just let it be there and not forcing her to eat or anything. But just, hey. This is a new food.
Alex Gayton: 13:04
Are you interested? Like, what do you think about it? How does it smell? How does it feel? And if I can’t even get her to taste it, if I can get her to touch it, that’s a success.
Alex Gayton: 13:11
So I’ve been kind of practicing that too. But some kids are super ambitious, and they’re like, yeah. Try that. And then I don’t know what it is, but you have to taste something a lot of times to really understand if you like it or not. Right.
Alex Gayton: 13:22
It’s hard to do that for kids. But if you keep on putting it on their plate and it gets more comfortable over time seeing it, then maybe they’ll be willing to try it and have the chance to do that. So sometimes I forget we fall into a routine of, like, they like these foods. This is the only foods I’m gonna give them. So then I wait.
Alex Gayton: 13:36
I need to give them a variety. So I’ll make something or my husband makes something, and we’ll try to share that and talk about the new food that’s on their plate. But they get more excited if they’re involved, I think, in the cooking process. Yeah.
Glenda Pereira: 13:47
Yeah. There’s a couple of things we haven’t talked about. I think maybe is it mindful eating? We’re not forcing…
Alex Gayton: 13:54
Yes.
Glenda Pereira: 13:54
Them to eat this and then they’re eating something that they want so then they feel confident in their choice.
Alex Gayton: 14:01
Right. Exactly. And, yes, we’ve done a lot of series about mindful eating and it’s kinda different for everyone. But, yeah, being really aware of the food and, like, all the things that kind of try to engage all your senses in it. A lot of the time it does include that eating piece at the end.
Alex Gayton: 14:12
And as you’re eating it, what’s the texture like? What is it? What does the mouth feel like? And what does it smell like? And all those things.
Alex Gayton: 14:18
So, yeah, mindful eating really just helps you kinda slow down and enjoy the food, hopefully, and then also be able just to feel how the food is and, more than just shoving it in your mouth and eating as fast as you can. A big piece of that mindful eating is, like, yeah, experiencing all senses and going through that process. And kids can do it too. I think a lot of our educators do that with the kids. Even if it’s just a taste test of a, you know, a bell pepper, a squash, or something, they’ll have the kids, okay.
Alex Gayton: 14:40
Like, let’s talk about this part and kinda go through that process of mindful eating and help the kids realize kind of what they’re eating and where it comes from: you know, where does it come from? Yeah. And how can you prepare it? And how is it good for you? So the whole process.
Alex Gayton: 14:52
Yeah.
Glenda Pereira: 14:52
Also, a lot of your content is about trying to get physical, depending on where your capacity is.
Alex Gayton: 15:00
Yes. Yeah. Thank you for bringing that up. I did forget that earlier. Physical activity is a big part of our program too.
Alex Gayton: 15:05
Just the importance of movement in your life. And like you said, whatever’s safe for each person, but encouraging some type of movement so that you can be physically active and fill yourself with good foods, but also help your body move and feel good through your life. So we do focus on that too. And we actually have a resource that’s newer on our website, on the extension website, there’s a physical activity page now. And it’s really just giving encouragement of what’s some examples of muscle and bone strengthening, flexibility and mobility, and even motivation of exercise.
Alex Gayton: 15:36
And it’s always hard to do that. I feel like it’s hard to fit in time with kids. But whether it’s a walk together in our neighborhood or at work, just standing up and doing some stretches, that web page on our website has a lot of good just, like, quick videos from other extension programs for encouragement about different movement you can do. And another piece to that was for educators in the classroom with adults or with youth, they could play these videos that are a quick ten-minute video or less, and they could play these with their class. And, okay, let’s do a stretch break or a mobility break, and they’ll play a video.
Alex Gayton: 16:06
And they could do that in class too with this resource. For educators out there, that would be maybe a good resource for you too.
Glenda Pereira: 16:11
And the last thing I just wanted to talk about was the Spoonful blog.
Alex Gayton: 16:15
Yes.
Glenda Pereira: 16:16
And can we just mention what the target goal for that blog is and how can folks find it?
Alex Gayton: 16:21
Spoonful bloggers are University of Maine Cooperative Extension staff members. All of us have knowledge in food and nutrition, so we have different specialties. So we have food safety people. We do a lot with food preservation. People really enjoy that content.
Alex Gayton: 16:33
It’s a variety of food and health-related topics. And really that’s for the general population, but we focus on a lot of different things. And it’s just a good way to educate people. We share it on social media, but it is on our website on Extension’s website under the Spoonful Blog. And yeah, we’d love for you all to check it out.
Alex Gayton: 16:50
I think it’s a great resource. We usually release a new blog every week, so we have quite a bit of content there. And even past content is so useful. We have a lot of content around holiday stuff and food safety, all the things we talked about. So it’s a good resource to look back on as well.
Alex Gayton: 17:03
So yeah.
Glenda Pereira: 17:04
Awesome. I’ll also attach it to the notes. Folks have it as a reference. As we gear up towards the end of the episode, was there anything I missed or that you wanted to mention to our listeners that we didn’t touch on?
Alex Gayton: 17:17
I didn’t really say where you could follow us on social media. So we’re on Facebook, Instagram, and TikTok as “umaineefnep,” all one word. And if you search that, you’ll be able to find us on any of those platforms. And we’d love to have you all follow us there. On our EFNEP web page, we do have a “get connected” piece.
Alex Gayton: 17:35
And if you wanna partner with us, we’d love to have you fill out that form. And if you contact us through that, we could try to connect you with a community education assistant. And if there is someone in your county that could help you, they would love to partner with you. And we do have an online program now called 10 Steps to Healthier You. It’s a course that you can take and, depending on whether you qualify for EFNEP or not, there’s a small fee, but if you qualify, it’s free.
Alex Gayton: 17:58
So you could take a nutrition class through that resource as well. And that’s on our website too.
Glenda Pereira: 18:03
Well, this is great information. Thank you so much, Alex. I learned a ton. I love your content. Keep it up.
Glenda Pereira: 18:09
You and your team do a great job, and I love working with you all. I look forward to having you back.
Alex Gayton: 18:14
Thank you so much. Yeah. This is super super fun.
Glenda Pereira: 18:16
And for our listeners who have comments, topic suggestions, or questions, be sure to email us at extension.farmcast@maine.edu.