Bloomington, IL – Jenna Smith, a Nutrition and Wellness Educator at the U of I Extension Office in Bloomington, has been named the winner of the 2025 McLean County Public Health Award. Smith was presented with the award on April 9th at an awards ceremony at McLean County Health Department.
The Public Health Award was created by the McLean County Board of Health and McLean County Health Department (MCHD) to recognize one county resident each year who furthers public health principles and practices by providing services in the county. The public health contribution can be professional or occupational, either as a volunteer or in a paid capacity.
“We received several nominations for the award this year,” said McLean County Health Department Administrator Jessica McKnight. “The selection committee had a difficult time choosing one winner from all the very deserving candidates.”
The award selection committee looked at several criteria: public health impact, collaboration, community leadership, and contribution to health promotion when making their decision.
“Jenna Smith has clearly demonstrated all these principles and more,” McKnight said. “Her hard work has helped to further our mission of protecting and promoting health.”
Smith has been an important advocate for McLean County residents who want to learn more about the cottage food industry. In Illinois, the cottage food industry allows individuals to start small by operating a home-based businesses model to produce and sell certain low-risk food products directly to consumers, but not for resale. This allows entrepreneurs to learn food safety practices, test their products, and build a customer base before scaling into a commercial kitchen.
Smith worked with Illinois Wesleyan University’s Small Business Development Center to provide information to prospective food business owners. “Jenna helped to diversify McLean County’s cottage food industry. She worked with translators, ensuring ESL participants fully comprehend food safety practices. She has made significant contributions to the Illinois state statute for cottage food and even helped develop Illinois' cottage food guidelines for safe food production and sale,” said Angie Crawford, Environmental Health Program Supervisor at MCHD.
Smith also instructs participants in the CDC’s Diabetes Prevention Program, a year-long program that helps those who are pre-diabetic avoid or delay the onset of type 2 diabetes. By demonstrating how to make healthier lifestyle changes, and by doing this in a positive and motivational way, Smith’s expertise has helped many McLean County participants to eat healthier food, get more active, lose weight, lower their A1C levels, and experience other positive health outcomes.
Smith also helped develop the Feeding my Baby from Cradle to Table website, a trusted resource for parents and caretakers to ensure optimal growth and development. She serves on the Illinois Food Safety Advisory committee and the North Central Region Food Safety workgroup.
Click here to learn more about the McLean County Public Health Award, including a list of previous award recipients.
WRITER: Marianne Manko
marianne.manko@mcleancountyil.gov
Source: Celeste Shanahan, Publicity and Promotions Coordinator, University of Illinois Extension Serving Livingston, McLean and Woodford Counties
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University of Illinois Extension develops educational programs, extends knowledge, and builds partnerships to support people, communities, and their environments as part of the state's land-grant institution. Extension serves as the leading public outreach effort for University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign and the College of Agricultural, Consumer and Environmental Sciences in all 102 Illinois counties through a network of 27 multi-county units and over 700 staff statewide. Extension’s mission is responsive to eight strategic priorities — community, economy, environment, food and agriculture, health, partnerships, technology and discovery, and workforce excellence — that are served through six program areas — 4-H youth development, agriculture and agribusiness, community and economic development, family and consumer science, integrated health disparities, and natural resources, environment, and energy.