MSU Extension Supporting Refugee and Immigrant Communities

To reduce barriers for participants, MSU Extension offers bundled programming for refugee and immigrant communities. With this approach, we combine (or “bundle”) various nutrition education and food safety classes into one convenient program.

For more information about how to bring these programs to your organization or community, please contact:

• Ghaida Havern, MSU Extension educator, at batarse3@msu.edu.
• Sulaiman Mansour, MSU Extension community nutrition instructor, at smansour@msu.edu.

Our offerings include:

Healthy Food Matters Bundled Series

• Eat Healthy, Be Active (three weeks), a program that teaches concepts like food safety, label reading, stretching food dollars and physical activity.
• ServSafe Food Handler Training (two weeks), a food safety training program for people in food service or seeking employment in the food service industry. Participants receive certification after completion of the course.
• Cottage Food Law Training (one week). Michigan’s Cottage Food Law provides guidelines for individuals to prepare non-potentially hazardous foods in a home kitchen. Only certain foods can be prepared and sold directly to the consumer without a license under this law.

Empowering Entrepreneurship Bundled Series (completion of Healthy Food Matters Bundled Series required)

• Planting Seeds for Health (three weeks), which helps participants learn the ins and outs of gardening and how to prepare healthy foods with their harvest.
• Money Management (three weeks), which includes education on financing, budgeting, and home ownership, identity theft and financial literacy.
• Stress Less with Mindfulness (two weeks), which teaches participants basic techniques of mindfulness. Participants will learn and experience mindful movements to relax, as well as how to eat mindfully, mindful walking and the power of laughter.

One-time Presentations

MSU Extension also offers one-time, customized educational presentations focusing on basic nutrition education and food safety training. We can adapt these presentations for specific audience needs.