Episode 24: A Los Angeles Story of Cal-Fresh and SNAP Ed, with Rainaclare Sibal

Earlier this year, PHPN intern Rainaclare Sibal interviewed SNAP-Ed nutrition educator, Stephanie Torres, who works with Catholic Charities as part of the CalFresh Program, also known as the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program or SNAP on the federal level. This edition of the PHPN Blog highlights the meaningful work of Stephanie and SNAP-Ed (the educational branch of the program) in providing nutrition education to children and families.

R: Welcome to today’s podcast. And I have Stephanie Torres joining us today. She works with Catholic Charities as part of the CalFresh Program, also known as the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program or SNAP, and Stephanie does meaningful work providing nutrition education to children. Welcome Stephanie!

S: Hi, thank you for having me.

R: Thank you so much. And if we could just get a little introduction about yourself. Could you give us some information about who you are and some background, general information about the work that you do?

S: Sure. So I am part of the CalFresh Healthy Living team, which is also SNAPed, but it has been rebranded into CalFresh Healthy Living. I work as a nutrition educator for youth education through CalFresh Healthy Living. We are also partnered with Catholic Charities of Los Angeles, which is a social services organization that gives us the opportunity to service clients within the Los Angeles county. I personally help provide nutrition, physical, and gardening education to support healthy and active lifestyles for underserved communities in the LA county where they might not receive this type of education or have the knowledge of how to stretch their income to fit healthier lifestyles.

And our team is divided into youth and adult education. Adult education primarily focuses on nutrition and physical education, and youth education also provides that, but they also incorporate gardening education as part of their curriculum. So that’s what we do through our program.

R: Thank you so much, that’s very nice to know that that’s all provided. And what would you say a typical day of work looks like for you, given all of that?

S: For me, we follow a specific curriculum when teaching the students. So we have to look at the curricula, make Powerpoint presentations. We would meet together and find ways to make it interactive. And we also then gather materials from our office to prepare for class sessions. So sometimes if we have a class on a topic that is gardening-related, we would have to get materials for all the kids, which is maybe seed packets, soil, tools like hand rakes, and so forth. And before holding this activity, we would also conduct a brief lesson before actually getting into the actual activity.

So most of our days are full school days, so classes can be anywhere from 45 minutes to an hour, depending on the class schedule. It’s for each class grade. Currently we are teaching 3rd to 8th grade students in two school locations. Currently we are teaching at St. Francis Cabrini and St. Ignatius of Loyola, and they are both catholic schools here in LA County. One is in the south bay, St. Francis Cabrini, and St. Ignatius is more in the Highland Park area.

And depending on the curricula, we have to tailor the given information to each classroom grade, which can be difficult: to find ways to make the material interesting for elementary school children vs. middle-school students. So you have to find the balance and try to figure out ways that work for both students.

R: That’s a good point. I imagine you work with all these different aged kids and they are just different in the way they take the information and act on it. So that’s good to know. Thank you.

Have you noticed, what are some of the struggles you’ve had to encounter amidst working with the pandemic? I know with the structure of the school day and planning that out, how have you navigated that?

S: Switching to virtual education at the start of the pandemic was basically what we had to do, and that was very challenging. We were actually one of the first CalFresh Healthy Living programs to transition into virtual teaching and learning. Many of the students and families, including the adult students, coming from these underserved communities did not have access to wireless internet connection or laptops and computers to work with, which was difficult to reach this demographic because they did not have the resources to obtain this form of education. It wasn’t like they can go to their local library or at a Starbucks where they have that internet connection because, if you remember at the beginning of the pandemic, everything was completely closed. So it was a challenge to try to teach these kids and also the adults the curriculum that we were trying to teach.

Fortunately we live in California, so our state responds very well to crises and the needs of its residents. They were actually able to provide free internet connection and computers to students in need. But I can only imagine how difficult it was for students living in different states who did not have the access to those resources during the pandemic. Also it was very difficult for the instructors as well because they had to adjust teaching from in-person lessons to a virtual format, which is more difficult to control given so many variables like faulty internet connection, confused parents or students, the learning curve that came with learning how to operate Zoom as well. For our adult educators, they also had to switch to virtual format, which was an adjustment for them as well. Some of the people who work at nonprofits like our own have the skills such as the skills for teaching, but are not necessarily knowledgeable when it comes to technology, especially our older employees. So it was definitely a challenge for some of our educators to switch to virtual learning because it was a learning curve for them as well.

However, now that the pandemic has died down a bit, we have gone back to teaching in-person classes.

R: Very nice. I was actually realizing the other day–I saw a commercial on TV about Xfinity servicing so many families with internet during the pandemic and that’s such a big part of it that you had to probably factor into your plans. That’s really cool that you were able to get that assistance.

I know you touched on this too when you answered that question, the individuals that you service. Who are the individuals that you mostly service or receive the services from your program and how do you hope to be able to reach more individuals in the future?

S: When they first started the program in our center, the main demographic was primarily hispanic or latino women. And it primarily only started as adult education. So for the reason why it was mostly hispanic or latino women is because that is primarily the community that we serve. And our adult educators are largely Spanish-speaking as their main language, so that was the main demographic that we reached out to at the time. Now we have expanded into youth education, which is probably the main individuals that receive our services since we are able to teach hundreds of students at each school, so it is easier reach and numbers in schools.

And for the adult education, it is more difficult to recruit adults. We previously, and we still do the same to this day as well, have to hand out flyers by walking around neighborhoods, tabling at special events to hand out flyers, and also if our adult educators are teaching at specific facilities, they have to catch people as they have finished other classes at that same facility to try to recruit them into the program. So it’s a little more difficult to try to get more people into the adult nutrition program as opposed to teaching at schools where there’s a bigger audience of people, so there’s more numbers there. So that’s the main demographic that receive our program.

But in terms of being able to reach more individuals in the future, we have started to incorporate social media into our program. I recently started an Instagram. I’m going to plug it in here, it’s @healthyliving.ccla for our Instagram, and that’s how we’ve been posting some of our flyers and our other programs to try to reach a wider audience in that way. But we’ll also try to implement the same strategies that we’ve had in the past, such as handing out flyers. And also, word of mouth helps as well. So anytime we have a class with a particular student, we encourage them to spread the word amongst their friends and family.

R: Nice. I imagine social media is probably a really good way to include both the adults and the children. That’s a good way to get everyone on board.

And I know you touched on this already with the difficulty in recruiting more adults to the program. Are there any other access barriers that you’ve noticed that your team would like to overcome in order to reach who you want to?

S: One of the problems that we face is the issue with facility locations. For instance, at our main office, such as St. Margaret Center, we don’t have elevator access and our lessons are usually held in the classroom which is on the second floor. So there is only a staircase for people to go upstairs. So since we don’t have elevator access, the elderly have a hard time walking up the stairs. There’s also no kitchen space in the classroom to teach with, since it’s only a classroom. We don’t have the kitchen space to make the cooking demonstrations. Mothers with children also cannot come to in-person classes because that is also difficult, having a child during the lesson, which is why our program has now split virtual and in-person classes to accommodate everyone because we see that there are different needs within the demographics that we’re teaching.

It’s also difficult to find other locations that will accommodate our needs and schedules to each nutrition education, so it’s hard trying to build those relationships and seeing where we can actually teach the lessons. So those have been some of the barriers we have encountered with regards to our program.

R: That’s a really good point. I know that’s a big factor to just being able to do your job properly, so thanks for bringing that up.

It is really to hear your perspective from what you do. What would you say is your favorite thing about working with SNAPed?

S: So even before coming to working at a non-profit organization at St. Margaret Center, I have always had a love for teaching and also for kids. Personally for me, it has been working with the kids and seeing their progression and what they have learned from our program. When we go out to the garden, you can see the excitement in their eyes and how engaged they become. And when they take part in the hands-on activities, they especially get really excited when they see some of the produce or harvest that is growing in the garden. And they can see, like, wow, this is what we grew in our garden. We also had one 8th grader student–usually some of the upper grades aren’t very into some of the gardening activities–but there are some who do enjoy it. And I had one of them come up to me and say, “I’m having a lot of fun, and I love what we’re learning about, and thank you for all that you do and for everything”. And that really made my day. It just warmed my heart, just having that appreciation. Just seeing that, you know, kids have different interests and we understand that, but just knowing that there are some of the kids that really love and appreciate the education that we’re giving them. It just makes the work worthwhile.

R: Wow, that’s awesome, just to see the product of what you do and just seeing those kids have such a positive response to it is great to hear.

S: Yeah.

R: We would love to have more information on where our listeners can go to learn about entering this line of work, but if you have anything you would like to plug, please feel free to share.

S: Yes, for entering this line of work, you can basically start in many directions. So for my coworker, she is currently earning some certifications from UCLA. She has gardening experience from childhood into adulthood, but she wants to gain a little bit more knowledge about gardening, so she’s currently taking a sustainable food and agriculture course at UCLA. You can also get into the field of education, whether it’s earning a bachelor’s or master’s in education, nutrition certification, there’s really many pathways to get into this line of work. Personally, if I’m being honest, I don’t have any of that experience, but I just have a willingness and a love for the mission. I do have some previous experience working with a nutrition program at our center as an assistant and working as a literacy coordinator may have helped. But I do admit there is still a lot that I have to learn. Every day there’s always something new with regards to gardening, or teaching methods. You just learn every day. There’s always something new. But as long as you have the drive and the joy in the field, anyone can enter into this line of work.

R: That’s great to hear. So if you have the willingness to do it, you can do it, and there is a need for more to join your team. So I imagine, if you want to do it, feel free and find a way.

S: Yes, absolutely.

R: Well this has been great. Thank you so much for sharing all of your experiences and willingness to help out others through this program, SNAPed. Thank you for joining us, Stephanie!

S: Thank you for having me. It’s been a pleasure.