LEWISTOWN, Ill. - Building strong relationships with partners in the community is crucial for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program—Education (SNAP-Education) program. These relationships can lead to opportunities to provide additional nutrition programming, which will further the impact of SNAP-Education. These opportunities can vary from new audiences, partners, programs, and sites. SNAP-Ed Instructor Elexus Gray has had great success in building strong partnerships within Fulton County.

Elexus partners with many Fulton County schools, the health department, local churches, and food pantries. In addition to the program participants enjoying the programs, the partner sites are benefiting as well and adding on more SNAP-Ed programs.

“I have found that I can make more of an impact when I go where the people are,” explained Elexus. “Oftentimes, people can’t make the time to add an extra stop or event in their day so they are unable to attend programs that I host as a stand-alone program. But when I go to partner sites where my audience will already be, they benefit from the information and enjoy the activities, plus the partner site benefits from the added activity too.”

“This is why it is so important for me to continue growing my partnerships in Fulton County. These partnerships allow me to reach more individuals, and teach more programs,” Elexus continued.

Many of the partnerships that Elexus has built have led to even more opportunities to make an impact in the community.

After teaching the OrganWise Guys curriculum in several schools across Fulton County, Elexus has been recommended to teach additional curricula in these schools to other audiences.

Westview Elementary School in Canton has asked Elexus to be a presenter for students at Westview Day for the past two years because of the great feedback they received during her OrganWise Guys classes. She was able to incorporate a different SNAP-Ed curriculum called CATCH into the event.

Central Elementary School in Lewistown reached out to Elexus to present to students and parents at a family night for the Pre-K classes. A teacher recommended Elexus for this role after having her teach OrganWise classes throughout the past few school years.

The Fulton County Health Department invited Elexus to be a part of their health fair. That program led to additional SNAP-Ed programs at the health department for adult audiences. 

This is just a small glimpse into the benefits and impacts strong partnerships lead to for SNAP-Ed instructors.

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Elexus adapted a current CATCH curriculum lesson to match this year’s Circus theme for Westview Day at Westview Elementary, in Canton. Partnerships with the schools are just one way SNAP-Ed instructors reach a large audience with their nutrition and active living lessons.