Common Threads Moves Nutrition Education to Digital Platform

The new digital suite features certificate courses in Nutrition Fundamentals and Healthy Cooking Skills, designed for educators, dietitians, and social service providers. By transitioning from in-person instruction to self-paced video modules, the organization aims to bypass traditional constraints of geography and funding that have historically limited their reach. This expansion leverages the nonprofit’s extensive history, which includes over 7.6 million hours of programming delivered to more than 1.2 million participants.

To ensure the digital curriculum remains rigorous, the organization has enlisted an external panel of experts, including representatives from the CDC Foundation and Columbia University, to vet the platform for usability and relevance. The development team, led by LaTrice Stirrup and Samantha Jones, intends to integrate Train-the-Trainer modules in the near future. This will allow outside organizations to license and facilitate Common Threads programs independently, scaling the impact of a model that has already seen success in schools like Don Haskins PK-8 in El Paso, Texas. The initiative is supported by funding from the Ahmanson, Hearst, and Paso del Norte Health Foundations.