What is BASICS? BASICS stands for Building and Strengthening Iowa Community Support for Nutrition and Physical Activity. The BASICS program provides federal funding for community coalitions to expand nutrition and physical activity education programs serving SNAP recipients and SNAP-eligible populations. The goal of the program is to provide educational programs that increase the likelihood that low-resource audiences can make healthy food choices consistent with the dietary advice of the MyPyramid. To meet this goal, the Iowa Nutrition Network provides traditional nutrition education resources combined with unique social marketing strategies.
Community Partners Currently 22 local organizations participate in BASICS. Community partners include ISU Extension, public schools, public health agencies, food banks, area agencies on aging and community action agencies among others.
Funding
Funds to support the BASICS grants come from the SNAP-Ed (Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program Nutrition Education). It is a cost-share plan sponsored by the SNAP (Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program) under the direction of the United States Department of Agriculture. Local match is required.
Non-federal public organizations or non-profit organizations that are able to provide nutrition education to Food Assistance participants or to target audiences that are likely to be eligible for Food Assistance can apply for BASICS funds to expand their nutrition education budgets. For more information contact the network at 1-800-532-1579 (within Iowa) or 515-281-6650.
BASICS Contractors
