Extension Activities Start Strong In 2021
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LIVING WELL IN
YALOBUSHA COUNTY
By Pamela Redwine
County Coordinator
MSU Extension Agent III
Happy New Year! We are looking forward to a great 2021 starting with an exciting lineup of activities. Here is an overview of what is going on at the Extension Office in the coming weeks.
• Our winter months can offer unique opportunities for floral design: bare branches, seasonal berries and evergreens, and warm finishes. Join Lynette McDougald on January 7 at noon via zoom as she helps us transition from our pretty elaborate holiday decorating to longer-lasting floral designs for winter displays. January is a terrific time to live with flowers. The zoom registration link is http://msuext.ms/qb2021-01-07
• A ServSafe Food Certification Class will be taught January 26th and 27th beginning at 9 a.m. on both days. The certification exam will begin at 1 p.m on the 27th and should be completed by 3 p.m. The class will be held at the MSU Extension Service Lafayette County. Cost of the course is $140. The deadline to register is January 8th. Call Pamela Redwine at the MSU Extension Office Yalobusha County at 662-675-2730 for additional details and to register.
• Join the FCS Agents of Northeast Mississippi each Monday as we present NE FCS Minute, a new educational video series. The NE FCS Minute will be a short educational video about a variety of topics. Each week a different NE FCS Extension Agent will post a 60 second video filled with educational information. The segments will be shared on your local extension Facebook page (Yalobusha County Extension Office). The kickoff date was January 4 at 8 p.m.
• The Create Club MHV will meet on Wednesday, January 13 at 9 a.m. This will be a planning meeting where we will plan the projects for 2021. Please come prepared and bring samples and ideas. We will need 11 different projects. Please wear your mask and social distancing will be observed. New members are encouraged to attend!
• The Looped with Love Crochet MHV Club will meet at the Extension Office on Thursday, January 7th from 10 am. until noon. The group is led by volunteer Karol Jarman. The new year is a great time to start something new! You will need to bring the yarn of your choice and a crochet hook. This is a great opportunity for beginners to learn how to crochet, as well, as a good time for more experienced people to get ideas for new projects, or finish existing projects. Please wear your mask and social distancing will be observed. New members are encouraged to attend!
• The sewing for service group will meet at 10 a.m. on Monday, January 11th at the Extension office. This is also a planning meeting. As with the other activities, participants will wear masks and observe social distancing.
We will be planning what we are going to do this year. Please wear your mask and social distancing will be observed. New members are also encouraged to attend!
• We have had a great turnout with our 4-H Cooking kits this year. We will continue this activity into the New Year. This is a great activity to sign your youth ages 5 to 18 up for (younger children may need more adult supervision, but it is fine to sign them up).
You do not have to be a member of 4-H, but we would love to sign you up for Yalobusha County 4-H, it is free to join. The monthly kits are $5 per kit. Each month the kit will include: A cooking related educational handout, a recipe, all of the ingredients that you will need to make the recipe and a surprise cooking tool to use to make your recipe. It’s fun, educational and delicious. The youth that participate look forward to their kits each month. Registration for the January kits is open until Friday, January 15.
The kit pickup date is Thursday, January 21. You can pay for just the January kit which is $5 or you can go ahead and pay for the first 3 months kits for $15. If you receive a kit you are asked to send a picture of the child(ren) with the finished recipe and fill out a short evaluation which can both be returned via text or email.
What Is Vitamin A?
Our immune system relies on a wide network of actions to protect our body from disease and help promote healing. Several nutrients play important roles in immune function, and one of these essential players is Vitamin A.
What is vitamin A?
Vitamin A is most widely known as promoting healthy vision, yet it also is essential for cell growth and differentiation and plays a critical role in the normal formation and maintenance of the heart, lungs, kidneys, and other organs. Vitamin A is actually the name of a group of fat-soluble retinoids that include retinol, retinal and retinyl esters.
What is Vitamin A’s role in the immune system?
Vitamin A insufficiency is associated with increased mortality to common gastrointestinal and lung infections and poor responses to vaccines. Vitamin A plays a crucial role in the epithelium, which is the lining of the inside of our digestive tract as well as our skin that protects our entire body. Vitamin A is also an important part of the immune function of the mucus layer of the respiratory tract and intestines. T-cells are part of our body’s immune defense system responsible for killing infected cells and activating and regulating other immune responses.
Retinoic acid (RA), a major oxidative metabolite of vitamin A, is a crucial component of T-cells. A review article published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition in 2012 concluded that although data from human studies are still needed, research from mice and rat models suggests that adequate vitamin A status, from either preformed retinol or beta-carotene, is important for maintaining a proper balance of well-regulated T cell functions and for preventing excessive or prolonged inflammatory reactions.
Article Source: https://foodandhealth.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/minutes-agendas-newsletters/Newsletter_2021-01-01.pdf
