When most people hear “grits,” they think of a classic Southern staple. At Open Hand, we think of our program, GRITS – Georgians Receiving Insightful Telenutrition Seminars. Launched back in October 2020, this innovative approach allows our incredible Registered Dietitian Nutritionists to deliver telenutrition education and counseling to older adults in senior centers, places of worship, and in the home, improving access to these crucial services across the state.  

We’re proud to have seen success with this program so far! On average, groups are seeing about a 2-5% improvement in knowledge per session, and almost 90% of participants report wanting to continue these sessions in the virtual format. We’ll be presenting more of our program findings throughout the summer at various conferences, such as the Age + Action Conference in Washington DC and the Meals on Wheels of America Conference in Phoenix.  

One huge step we’ve taken to begin further improving access for this program is create an on-demand video library for those who’d like to go back and listen to lessons again or who are unable to attend the live virtual sessions. Our goal is to create at least 12 videos to help fill this gap, and we’ve already started! You can view the beginning of our library here, featuring our RDN, Rachel. 

Overall, GRITS aims to increase nutrition knowledge among Georgia older adults by connecting those at highest nutrition risk with a Registered Dietitian Nutritionist (RDN) for Medical Nutrition Therapy (MNT), as well as develop and standardize virtual nutrition presentations appropriate for use in senior centers across the state. We’re thrilled by the progress we’ve been able to make so far, and excited to continue to further improve access to nutrition education for our Georgia seniors.