Eating Smart Being Active (ESBA) is a program for low-income parents and caregivers that teaches nutrition, cooking skills, physical activity habits, and food resource management.

If you are a local agency looking to bring ESBA to your clients, please reach out to us!

About ESBA

75-120 minute weekly lessons

7-9 week courses

In-person meal preparation and free lesson reinforcements

Small groups at various community sites

Who Can Join

To participate in an ESBA course, participants need to:

Qualify for at least one form of federal government assistance, such as
- QUEST Card (Food Stamps/FoodShare)
- Free or Reduced School Lunch or School Breakfast Programs
- WIC (The Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children)
- Social Security or Social Security Disability Income
- Wisconsin Works (W2)
- See more information here
Be the parent or caretaker of a child under 18, or pregnant, or nursing. “Caretaker” includes anyone who provide more than 50% of a child’s meals, even if they are not the parent or related to the child.

People who do not meet these requirements should not apply to join a ESBA group. Thank you for your understanding!

Course Topics

In our ESBA course, you will…

Discover Recipes!
Save Time & Money!
Celebrate Healthy Habits!
Receive free cooking tools and a cookbook!

ESBA Curriculum

Eating Smart & Being Active (ESBA) is an Expanded Food and Nutrition Education Program (EFNEP) curriculum. It was developed by EFNEP staff at Colorado State University and the University of California at Davis. Nine core lessons have been designed for nutrition educators to teach healthy lifestyle choices to families with young children. Note: for shorter series, some ESBA lessons are combined. Actual lesson order and topics may be different from what is listed here. All sessions have cooking activities.

Lesson One: Welcome to Eating Smart • Being Active is an introduction to the curriculum and getting right into cooking and lesson topics!

Lesson Two: Get Moving! introduces the topic of physical activity, and a nutrition mapping activity. All lessons after this have a physical activity portion.

Lesson Three: Plan, Shop, $ave addresses the topics of meal planning and saving money at the grocery store.

Lesson Four: Fruits & Veggies: Half Your Plate is all about how to increase the amount and variety of
vegetables.

Lesson Five: Make Half Your Grains Whole includes information and skill-building around choosing whole grains and foods high in fiber.

Lesson Six: Vary Your Protein Routine addresses the topics of choosing a variety of protein foods.

Lesson Seven: Build Strong Bones is about getting enough calcium from low-fat dairy foods and other foods high in calcium AND by engaging in bone-building physical activity.

Lesson Eight: Small Changes Matter contains information and activities on reducing saturated fat, sugar, and salt in the diet.

Lesson Nine: Celebrate! Eat Smart and Be Active is where you celebrate your new knowledge and skills and wrap up the course!

Wisconsin Registry Credit

The Wisconsin Registry is a recognition system for early childhood care and education providers, who are Registry members, to verify continuing education credits. FoodWIse has applied to have EFNEP Eating Smart Being Active (ESBA) programming approved for Registry credits. Ask your educator about claiming registry credits in your one-time ESBA course. For more information, please reach out to huaytaperez@wisc.edu.

ESBA Courses

*Before signing up for an ESBA course, please review the requirements for who can join.

More ESBA courses are being scheduled right now.

Please join our waitlist to be contacted when new ESBA courses are available. Otherwise, check back soon for course options and sign-up information!

Join the ESBA waitlist