Celebrating Puerto Rican Cuisine in Sacramento Through Nutrition Education and Cooking Classes- NAPC Partnership Project Award

Sacramento Public Library will partner with the NNLM All of Us Program Center and All of Us Research Program to participate in an author event during National Nutrition Month, participate in outreach, and distribute information about All of Us in order to engage with community members in enrollment and retention for the All of Us Research Program.

Additionally, we will feature Sacramento-based cookbook author, Illyanna Maisonet, in a series of events highlighting Puerto Rican cuisine. We will also partner with local organization, Health Education Council, to teach patrons how to make some of the recipes in Maisonet’s cookbook at libraries throughout our system. We will also equip patrons with tools to build their cooking tools, including a copy of Maisonet’s cookbook and Adobo seasoning.

Celebrating Puerto Rican Cuisine in Sacramento Through Nutrition Education and Cooking Classes will kick off public programming in January 2024, with monthly virtual cooking demonstrations featuring local chef, Illyanna Maisonet, culminating with an author conversation at our Central Library during National Nutrition Month. During that time, we will distribute copies of Maisonet’s book, “Diasporican: A Puerto Rican Cookbook,” to patrons to help build home libraries. Between January-March, we will partner with Health Education Council to hold cooking demonstrations at libraries throughout Sacramento County, using recipes from Maisonet’s cookbook. During this time, we will also distribute kits for patrons to pick up at each of our 28 libraries, which will have adobo seasoning, as well as information about the author events and brochures from All of Us.

The project will partner with All of Us Research Program, UC Davis Health to promote All of Us enrollment, retention, and engagement through outreach events and distribution of All of Us information to patrons.

While this programming will be available to the general public, as anyone can benefit from nutrition education and learning new cooking skills, we will target vulnerable populations, who are at a higher risk of obesity, type 2 diabetes, and heart disease, including:

• African Americans – 10.8% of the population in Sacramento County identify as Black or African American
• Latinos – 24.5% of the population in Sacramento County identify as Hispanic or Latino

We will reach this audience by participating in outreach events throughout the community, including health fairs, food events, and farmers markets. We will also work with partner organizations who serve this audience to share information with users.