(The following article appeared in The Montgomery County Gazette on February 24th.)
Parents at Washington Grove Elementary School in Gaithersburg are using Text2BHealthy messages as a way to help them make better everyday nutrition choices for themselves and their children.
“Once or twice a week [the program] sends text messages to parents giving them nutrition tips, letting them know what’s on sale at the local grocery store,” Washington Grove principal Susan Barranger said.
The program was created by the University of Maryland Extension’s Food Supplement Nutrition Education Program to help reinforce nutrition information and behaviors that children are learning in school by bringing tips for a healthy lifestyle straight to their parents, according to its director Lisa Lachenmayr.
The Extension is a statewide, informal education system within the college of Agriculture and Natural Resources and the University of Maryland Eastern Shore that provides educational programs to citizens. The University of Maryland Extension has had a long-term relationship with Washington Grove Elementary School and has provided them with nutrition education for various grade levels over the years, according to the school’s principal Susan Barranger.
“We are a nutrition education program and we found that reaching the parents was one of the more challenging audiences. They are the food shoppers, they are the gatekeepers, they are the decision makers,” Lachenmayr said.
Lachenmayr continued explaining that parents are busy with work, life and children and the University of Maryland Extension wanted to be able to reach them through something they use regularly.
“[It’s a] flexible, timely, reliable way to meet them where they were,” Lachenmayr said.
The three-year-old Text2BHealthy program is also unique because it targets parents geographically. Lachenmayr said that every school involved gets different messages based on their local grocery store, community or school events as well as the area weather. Lachenmayr said people feel as if the messages are very “personalized.”
“We specifically do elementary schools, we specifically do low-income areas, we specifically look at helping people utilize their limited resources wisely,” Lachenmayr said.
The Text2BHealthy program is available for families at various schools around Maryland, including some in Baltimore as well as Gaithersburg Elementary School in Montgomery County. Each school involved signs up differently to ensure that they are getting the most relevant information, Lachenmayr explained.
“We used a variety of methods to let our families know. We initially sent home fliers about it with simple instructions on how to enroll in both languages,” Barranger said, explaining that they also used automated phone calls to families in the school and had the University of Maryland Extension at various school events to speak with parents in person.
Barranger said that there is a large Latino population at Washington Grove. Through surveys, Lachenmayr said she found out that many parents had their children translate the texts to them if they didn’t speak or read English.
“The first year they only had to capacity to send these messages in English. I kept pushing, saying we could reach far more if we had it in Spanish,” Barranger said.
The first year, only about 14 or 15 parents participated, according to Barranger. Last year, Spanish texts were made available and about 78 families were involved. This year, Barranger said that they have nearly 100 participants.
When staff of the University of Maryland Extension is visiting the school during parent events to help encourage families to sign up, the creators make sure to explain to parents what signing up means for their wireless bill and most people don’t seem concerned. Though normal text messaging rates apply, Bollanger said that it seems that many people have plans with large text allowances that an extra text or two a week doesn’t matter.
“I don’t hear people saying they won’t sign up because of texting rates,” Bollanger said,
Bollanger signed up to receive the texts herself so that she could see what her students’ parents were seeing. She said that she doesn’t find the texts intruding at all and explained that the texts not only encourage healthy eating, but also exercise and have informed her of sales on healthy items at local grocery stores. The texts reflect the weather and Bollanger said that if its cold, for instance, there will be a recipe for something warm.
“The texts usually bring a smile to my face,” Bollanger said.
