May 15th, 2017

Dear Aetna Foundation,

I am writing to you to respectfully request funding for a nutrition education program with
Monadnock Family Services in Keene, NH. This is a newly developed four-week program for
clients with co-morbid medical and psychiatric illnesses. This population is mostly low-income
with low levels of health literacy. This program will increase levels of health literacy, increase
confidence in shopping for and preparing food on a budget, and motivate the clients to lead
healthier lifestyles. The audience will be encouraged to transform the foods they receive from
the food pantry into more enjoyable meals, and will be less likely to purchase junk food at
convenience stores or grocery stores. They will have the ability to meal plan, budget, and
repurpose leftovers into healthy meals for their families.

This grant will be used to purchase educational supplies and food items for recipe preparation.
This is a population that has had very little exposure to health and nutrition education. The
nutrition program will support the Keene communitys efforts to become a healthier place to live,
work, and learn, as well as increase the participants physical, mental, social, and emotional
well-being.

Below, you will find a grant proposal further explaining the needs for funding this program.
Thank you for your time and consideration.

Sincerely,
Rachel OConnor
Keene State College Dietetic Intern
I.Project Goals
The project is a four-week nutrition program carried out by Keene State College dietetic interns
in collaboration with Monadnock Family Services. It seeks to improve levels of health literacy in
low-income populations experiencing co-morbid diseases and psychiatric disorders. This will be
achieved through four separate nutrition presentations on the topics of:
- Eating Healthy On a Budget
- Eating More Fruits and Vegetables
- Meal Planning - Making the Most of Your Leftovers
- Smart Snacking
These presentations were decided upon after a survey was given to the clients at Monadnock
Family Services. These four topics were the most voted upon.

II. Project Activities

Four presentations will be given on different topics. Each presentation will contain an
icebreaker, objectives, basic nutrition content and how to apply it, activities, and food samples if
applicable to the lesson. The discussion-style presentation will initially introduce the topic and
get the audience thinking about the information and how it applies to their own lives, and the
activity sheets will allow the audience to directly apply what theyve just learned. Examples of
the activities being used are:
1. Grocery Store Circular: Circle as many items as you can in a grocery store circular that
you would want to include in tonights dinner for under $10. Try to get the most bang for
your buck and include as many food groups as possible. Meals should typically include
at least 3 food groups.
2. Heads Up: Various fruits and vegetables will be written on slips of paper. Two people
will pair up with the person next to them. One partner will place their fruit/vegetable on
their forehead without looking at it. The other partner will give them clues to guess what
fruit/vegetable is on their forehead. Once it has been guessed, the partners will talk
about whether they eat that fruit/vegetable, what they eat it with, if theyve even heard of
it, etc. Then the other partner will go.
3. Grocery List - Write down your common grocery list, or alternatively, just the most
common foods you buy at the grocery store. Talk with a partner about what you could
add to this list to incorporate more healthy ingredients. Try to come up with 2 of what
you consider to be healthy dinners (use at least 3 food groups).
4. Chopped - timer set to 3 minutes. This is what you have in your cabinet - youre running
out the door and you need to make one snack to take with you. Pictures of common
foods in fridge and pantry will be printed out. Items will be mostly canned, frozen, and
inexpensive.

III. Project Outcomes

Outcomes of the nutrition program will be as follows: increased levels of health literacy,
increased confidence in shopping for and preparing food on a budget, and motivation to lead
healthier lifestyles. The audience will be encouraged to transform the foods they receive from
the food pantry into more enjoyable meals, and will be less likely to purchase junk food at
convenience stores or grocery stores. They will have the ability to meal plan, budget, and
repurpose leftovers into healthy meals for their families.
IV. Evaluation Plan
There will be evaluation tools woven throughout the presentations to measure the progress
toward our outcomes as the weeks go on. They will be related to the objectives of each
individual presentation. There will also be a survey at the end of the four weeks to effectively
determine what the audience has learned in a well-rounded way. This survey will ask what the
client remembers about each lesson, whether they think the method in which the lessons were
taught was effective, what they would change to make them more effective, whether they feel
the information was either too elementary or too advanced for their knowledge base, and what
they would be interested in learning about in future lessons.

The floor will also be open for the audience to provide feedback during each presentation. Since
the project is new and it will be the first time its being presented, it will be important to evaluate
it continuously and adapt it as necessary.

After the four-week program is, the intern will meet with the staff of Monadnock Family Services
and review the surveys. There will be an open discussion about what needs to change and/or
stay the same for the next program. Depending on the feedback, more presentations can be
developed to increase the education opportunities of the program.

V. Staff Qualifications
Proposed staffing plan: Monadnock Family Services nurses to oversee the clients in case
anyone misbehaves, needs to leave, etc. Keene State College dietetic interns to market for the
project, give the presentations, either cook with the clients or pass out food, nutrition info, recipe
cards, and evaluate the effectiveness of the project in collaboration with the MFS staff. The
nurses are qualified to work with this project because they have extensive experience with the
client base and know what to expect. The KSC dietetic interns are qualified to work with this
project because they all have an undergrad degree in nutrition and will have spoken to the MFS
about the best ways to work with this specific population.

VI. Timeline
Week 1: June 7th
- Activity 1: Write down 3 meal ideas using the items you chose in the circular earlier.
Make sure youre within the $10 budget.
Think about meals you and/or your family would actually enjoy, but are also nutritious.
Week 2: June 14th
- Activity 1: Have worksheet with a word bank where participants must place the
characteristic in the correct category (fresh, frozen, or canned fruits and vegetables)
based on preconceived beliefs.
- Activity 2: Print out the common nutrients we talked about and have them match one fruit
or vegetable to each nutrient. Then have them match the fruit/vegetable and the nutrient
to one of the benefits of that nutrient (will be a word bank).
Week 3: June 21st
 - Activity 1: Repurpose these common leftover food items into 3 different meals. There will
be pictures of a variety of food items: sweet potato, peppers and onions, beans, pasta,
rice, chicken bones, green beans, chili, cheese, tomato sauce, etc.
- Activity 2: Blank calendar - choose one protein that is inexpensive (veg. protein) or
commonly on sale (chicken) to use throughout the whole week for different meals. Write
down as many ideas for different days as possible. Keep in mind that some meals you
can eat as leftovers for more than one day.
Week 4: June 28th
- Gas Station Dilemma Activity: Choose the common snack that you usually or are most
likely to buy at the gas station. Why do you choose this item? Do you think it would be
considered a smart snack? Why or why not? Now choose a common snack that is a bit
more healthy to replace the old snack with. Do you think, realistically, you would
purchase this smart snack in place of the original snack? Why or why not?

Continued timeline will be decided upon by KSC DI and MFS.

VII. Sustainability
The project activities will continue through collaborating with other local organizations, such as
the Community Kitchen. This will allow the project to continue because the intern can utilize
ingredients that the Community Kitchen is passing out and make food samples and recipe cards
related to the ingredient being donated. Additional collaborating between the KSC DI and
Monadnock Family Services will allow this program to continue indefinitely, since the intern will
be providing their services without cost.

VIII. Communication/Social Media

Facebook will be used to communicate about the organizations work. Most of the MFS
audience will have experience with and be comfortable with Facebook, so it makes the most
sense for that to be the main social media platform for them to get information. They could also
choose to be added to a listserv so they can receive immediate notifications about the project,
news related to the classes, etc.

IX. Budget Needs

Writing materials (pencils, pens) - 500 of each = $50 + $47.72
Smart Board for easy presentation access for interns - $594.95
Food costs - $20 per lesson (20 x 12 = $240)
Printing costs for handouts/activity sheets/recipe cards- consider there being about 15
participants per class. 15 x 12 = 180 people
Printing in color costs about $0.15 = $27 for handouts, $27 for recipe cards, $27 for activity
sheets.
Total budget needs: $1,013.67

Even though this is being established as a four-week program, will want to continue it for the
rest of the year to try to get improve the health literacy of as many clients as possible. May need
to develop new presentations and materials depending on if the same clients continue to sign
up and want to be educated on other topics. Budget needs will therefore be requested for
carrying out the four-week program 12 times.