---

PINE RIVER-Cass County commissioners heard a University of Minnesota Extension service update at a special meeting before the regular meeting Tuesday while they toured the remodeled extension office.

Cass's extension office is located behind the post office in Pine River, two blocks west of the traffic signal in the city. Information is available there about gardener soil testing kits, Master Gardener programs, pesticide use, cooking, agriculture and youth programs.

Nic Podoll, Cass 4-H coordinator, discussed outreach Cass's 4-H is doing.

Samantha Barron, Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program educator, discussed the education program she provides to people who receive SNAP financial assistance to obtain food.

Podoll reported there are 158 children involved in the county's 4-H programs. There have been 90 new members added in the last year, he said.

Historically, Cass's 4-H clubs have centered around the Pine River area in central Cass. This year, Podoll worked with Pillager School to offer a STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) program for kindergarten through fourth-grade students who were attending summer school.

He said 46 students who took the class as a part of their three-week summer school in July responded positively.

"Our science demonstrations turned out to be the fun class of the day, sandwiched between English in the morning and math in the afternoon," Podoll said.

Many of those who attended summer school expressed interest in joining an after-school 4-H club. He is working with school officials to offer that this fall, he said.

He also is working with an Itasca County extension educator, with a hope to be able to start a 4-H after-school club at Northland Community Schools sometime this coming school year.

Interest has been shown in the Walker-Hackensack-Akeley and Cass Lake-Bena school districts as well. He said he has begun talks with Leech Lake Reservation officials about what type of programs their children would like to see. The goal would be to start a 4-H program at Cass Lake by 2018, he said.

Podoll said there now are a variety of club models and focus subjects for clubs to choose.

"It's no longer just about livestock," Podoll said of 4-H. They plan to target kindergarten through sixth grade students in their expansion program, he said.

Integrating 4-H with after-school programs seems to work best, he added.

Hailee Swenson, a 4-H ambassador, reported on the 4-H cookie-baking program and the fact 4-H ambassadors help organize parades and make presentations in schools about 4-H activities.

Barron reported she taught 31 classes for 245 people in the last year throughout the county and at Staples and Little Falls, on ways people can make healthy meals on a limited budget.

There is a federally produced cookbook available to anyone at the extension office, which gives recipes on how to make tasty, but healthy dishes using common garden produce and low-cost foods.

She cited zucchini pizza rounds and kale chips as a couple of the most popular recipes she has promoted. There even is a peach dessert recipe to top off meals at the back of the cookbook.

Extension educators work with local communities to help set up community gardens, Barron said. Pine River now has a seed library at the city's library, where people can borrow seeds in the spring to use in their garden, then bring back seeds from their plants to share with others in the fall.

The education program works with anyone from grade-school children to senior citizens, Barron said.

The goal is to bring down the number of obese people and to ensure everyone has access to enough healthy food. The education program also encourages getting adequate exercise, Barron added.

Second publication rights after Brainerd Dispatch.[[In-content Ad]]

---