FY 2015-2016 Accomplishments

• In coordination with the Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services, the department's Horticulture Agent educated 86 local homeowners on management techniques for the Formosan termite in order to protect their properties from damage.
• Over 800 people were educated through spring and fall Garden Festivals hosted by the master gardeners. Educational material was presented involving gardening, landscaping, canning and other food preservation techniques.
• Continuing Educational Unit courses taught by both coastal sustainability and horticulture agents provided workshops educating 75 local contractors and 99 local horticulture professionals, ensuring that quality professional building and landscaping services are available in our community.
• BP grant funding was utilized to complete design and testing for the Naturally EscaRosa smartphone app, which was released to the public as a free resource that connects tourists and locals to over 100 local agritourism and ecotourism businesses.
• More than 3,680 individuals participated in nutrition, food safety and elder care education provided by Extension Service's family and consumer science agent. Diabetes classes educated 195 people, and 83 percent of participants reported improved blood glucose levels in a follow-up survey. Parenting education programs reached 320 military parents.
• Through the department's Expanded Food and Nutrition Education Program, a total of 163 limited-resource families and 1,873 youth were educated about choosing healthier foods, reading nutrition labels, improved resource management, food safety and nutrition practices. For every $1 spent through EFNEP programming, $10.64 is saved on health care costs and $2.48 is saved on food expenses. EFNEP saved Escambia County citizens $2.2 million on health care costs and $524,000 on food expenses.
• 4-H, the nation's largest youth development program, continued its mission to enhance youth development through hands-on life skills education. Through 4-H, 236 youth were educated in camps and workshops that included Cooking & Canning, Sewing, Wild Animal Day Camp, Search & Rescue Day Camp and Mock Legislature. Youth also participated in livestock and forage production education, animal health and other programming aimed at meeting the needs of local small farms livestock producers.
• Through Extension Service's sea grant agent, 628 residents were educated about marine debris, and over 500 volunteers were utilized to remove 3,780 pounds of solid waste from our shorelines. More than 860 residents were educated about local marine and estuarine turtles. Nineteen volunteers were trained to survey county beaches for diamondback terrapins, discovering two new nesting beaches.
• Agriculture agent educated over 100 people about irrigation management, which included an on-farm irrigation demonstration. An educational peanut soil moisture management on-farm demonstration was funded entirely by a $9,834 grant obtained through FDOA and Consumer Sciences, which encouraged farmers to adopt Best Management Practices. The peanut soil management project will expand in 2017.

Extension Service Statistics

• 421 educational materials produced
• 832 field consults
• 1,986 office consults
• 57,076 group learning contacts
• 4,497 telephone consults
• 8,371 email consults
• 44,328 website contacts
• 902 number of volunteers
• 32,783 volunteer hours
• $732,849 dollar amount of volunteer hours ($22.08/hr)