Jamie Carrier, nutrition outreach instructor with the West Virginia University Extension Family Nutrition Program, never knows who will walk into her Thursday class at Harrison County’s SPOKES program.
Students come and go every week as part of the year-round career readiness program. But no matter who shows up, they receive the same warm welcome.
“Everyone loves her because she has that compassionate, bubbly humor and can draw those students in,” said SPOKES educator Misty Richardson. “Even the ones that are reserved and hard to get to, within their first few encounters they’re ready for her to come back.”
Richardson said Carrier’s classes have been life-changing for many SPOKES students. That’s why she and co-teacher Jill Oakes-Kincade nominated Carrier for the West Virginia Adult Education Association's Collaborative Partner of the Year Award. Carrier will receive the award in September at the association’s fall conference, held at Stonewall Resort in Roanoke.
SPOKES, which stands for Strategic Planning in Occupational Knowledge for Employment and Success, is a program of the West Virginia Department of Education and the state Department of Human Services. It helps get adults who receive public assistance, like SNAP, ready to re-enter the workforce.
But SPOKES is about more than career readiness, Richardson said. It also helps students with life skills. That’s where Carrier — who has taught Eating Smart, Being Active classes at the Harrison County’s SPOKES program for four years — comes in.
The Eating Smart, Being Active curriculum shows participants how to save money at the grocery store, shop for healthier foods, safely store and handle those foods and how to use those ingredients to prepare healthy, delicious and easy-to-prepare meals. Students receive hands-on experience and kitchen items, like measuring cups and vegetable peelers, they can take home. It’s all presented through easy-to-implement strategies that every family can use.
“We meet them where they are,” Carrier said.
She admits some students are initially hesitant to change their food and physical activity habits.
“The way I look at it is, they’re just not ready. I don’t take it personally,” Carrier said. “I try to make it feel comfortable. It’s their class. I'm there for them.”
But when students start to apply the lessons, it can be life-changing. Carrier remembers one participant, a mom of four, who came to class after receiving bad news from her doctor: her blood pressure and blood sugar level were dangerously high.
“When she came in, she was really mad because this doctor told her she needed to change her diet,” she said. “Then, all of a sudden, it clicked.”
The woman began to participate in class and make healthy meals. After learning about how much added sugar is in soft drinks, she cut them from her diet. She started getting more physical activity.
“She bought an activity tracker and was getting 20,000 steps a day. And she told me ‘Now my eight-year-old wants to walk with me,’” Carrier said.
After completing the class, the woman returned to her doctor and found all her numbers had improved.
“She’s the poster child of what we do,” Carrier said.
FNP nutrition outreach instructor Jamie Carrier poses with graduates of her Harrison County SPOKES class.
Richardson said Carrier helped other students learn to budget their SNAP benefits. When Harrison County’s SPOKES program started offering participants food boxes, Carrier showed them how to take the ingredients they received and turn them into meals.
“Jamie went above and beyond,” Richardson said.
Carrier’s classes even inspired one participant to pursue a new career.
“We had one student who learned from working with Jamie how much he liked to cook and enjoyed nutrition,” Richardson said.
Following the class, the man received his food handlers’ card through SPOKES.
“He went on and got a job as a cook at a local hospital and has been there over a year,” she said. “Jamie’s classes really helped lead him to a career with food service.”
Gina Wood, EFNEP Coordinator with the WVU Extension Family Nutrition Program, says Carrier has been a valued member of the Family Nutrition Program team for many years.
“Jamie intuitively understands how to connect with her participants by tailoring her classes to meet their family situations and lifestyles — she even makes it a point to keep in touch with her participants in between classes,” Wood said. “Her positive and outgoing personality resonates with her community partners and participants, and we are so proud of all she has accomplished. Jamie puts a lot of time and energy into her classes, and this award is so well-deserved!”
For her part, Carrier says it just comes naturally.
“Whether you like it, whether you don’t, food is the universal subject you can connect with people on,” she said.
WVU Extension Family Nutrition Program’s work is supported by the Expanded Food and Nutrition Education Program (EFNEP) from the USDA National Institute of Food and Agriculture.”
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CONTACT:
Zack Harold
Multimedia Specialist
WVU Extension Family Nutrition Program
304.550.2186; zackary.harold@mail.wvu.edu
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