ALEXANDRIA, Va. - Oct. 14, 2019 - In celebration of Global Handwashing Day, Tuesday, October 15, the non-profit Partnership for Food Safety Education is working with health and food safety educators, K-12 educators and U.S. Federal agency liaisons to support people on the critical importance of handwashing to safely preparing food at home.
A live online event, First We Wash Our Hands, will highlight what is known about the handwashing behaviors of consumers when preparing food, and will provide support and resources for health and food safety educators to engage millions of Americans on proper handwashing for good health.
"Since research tells us people are not consistent or thorough when it comes to handwashing before eating or preparing food, this special day of focus will engage health educators, teachers, and parents on promoting handwashing practices that will reduce risk of illness from common germs like Salmonella and Campylobacter," said Shelley Feist, executive director of the Partnership for Food Safety Education (PFSE). "These pathogens cause illness in thousands of children each year."
PFSE calls on public health agencies, cooperative extension and family and consumer sciences educators to host watch parties and take part in the interactive event which will include handwashing demonstrations, new research on consumer behavior, and the announcement of a new national handwashing campaign from the CDC, Life is Better with Clean Hands. The campaign is designed to motivate adults to make clean hands part of their daily lives and encourages parents and caregivers to be hand hygiene role models for the children in their lives. The campaign's health promotion materials include radio public service announcements (PSAs), posters, social media graphics, web banners and stickers in English and Spanish.
To participate in the live event at 2 p.m. Eastern on October 15, 2019 register at this link. The event is free. CEU credits are offered.
The event will feature:
Dr. Mindy Brashears
Deputy Under Secretary for Food Safety
US Department of Agriculture
@USDAFoodSafety
Dr. David Berendes
Epidemiologist
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
@CDCgov
Glenda Hyde
Associate Professor
Oregon State University
@OregonStateUnivExt
Bruce Monroe Elementary School
Washington DC
Register now: http://bit.ly/2nT0YDV or get more information at: www.fightbac.org/events
Established by the Global Handwashing Partnership in 2008, Global Handwashing Day is celebrated each year on October 15 as a way to increase awareness and understanding of the benefits of handwashing with soap.
In addition to resources at fightbac.org educators can access quality consumer education materials from these web pages of the U.S. Federal agencies:
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention: www.cdc.gov/handwashing/index.html
and www.cdc.gov/foodsafety
U.S. Food and Drug Administration: Information on food safety, nutrition and health education campaigns https://www.fda.gov/food/resources-you-food/consumers
U.S. Department of Agriculture, Food Safety and Inspection Service: Food Safety Education page https://www.fsis.usda.gov/wps/portal/fsis/topics/food-safety-education
Follow the non-profit Partnership for Food Safety Education on Facebook at @FightBAC (http://www.facebook.com/FightBac) and on Twitter at @Fight_BAC (http://www.twitter.com/Fight_BAC) or for more information www.fightbac.org.
Contact
Shelley Feist
sfeist@fightbac.org
