To promote an easier path to healthy eating and to help battle Indiana’s growing obesity problem, local extension health educator Harriet Armstrong will offer free produce demos each month this summer at the downtown Columbus Farmers Market.
She is also promoting an online food prep link — extension.purdue.edu/foodlink/ — that market shoppers may use to better utilize their purchased produce as part of a meal.
And she is leading a series of five home food preservation classes beginning Thursday with a registration deadline of Wednesday.
Armstrong, health and human sciences educator for the Purdue Extension Office of Bartholomew County, will offer the produce-related food demos from 10 a.m. to noon June 8 at the market in the Cummins Inc. parking lot on Brown Street downtown between Fifth and Sixth streets. She will continue the demos on July 20, Aug. 24, and Sept. 14 at the market.
Those efforts will be done with the produce available at the market.
She said the demos will be simply an extension of her job — and are a byproduct of local consumers telling her they need ideas on how to use produce in meals. Katelyn Kutemeier, the local Purdue Extension community wellness coordinator for the nutrition education program, will assist with the June 8 demo that will include small, free food samples to encourage people to try various recipes.
“So often we can get into a rut with meals,” Armstrong said. “Here in Indiana, where I was raised, green beans, corn and potatoes tend to be what people think of when they do think of produce. But there’s a ton of other options often not taken advantage of because people don’t have much experience with them.”
Indiana has the 12th highest adult obesity rate in the country, and the ninth highest obesity rate for youth ages 10 to 17, according to stateofobesity.org, which tracks such stats nationwide. Indiana’s adult obesity rate is currently 33 percent of the population, up from 20 percent in 2000, according to the website.
“When quality local produce is readily available, it now only helps boost nutrition, but it also helps the local economy,” Kutemeier said.
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What: Produce demos at the Columbus Farmers Market to encourage healthier meals.
When: 10 a.m. to noon June 8, July 20, Aug. 24, and Sept. 14.
Where: In the Cummins Inc. parking lot on Brown Street.
Also upcoming: Home food preservation classes beginning at 6 p.m. Thursday and running each of the four successive Thursdays. Registration deadline is Wednesday.
Information and to register: 812-379-1665.
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