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Author: djbechard

Review Your Safety Checklist

Posted on by djbechard

Daylight savings time begins every year on the second Sunday of March.  This is also a good time to review your spring safety checklist.

Smoke Alarms – Smoke alarms should be in every bedroom and in the common areas on each floor of a home. Mount them at least 10 feet from the stove to reduce false alarms, less than 12 inches from the ceiling and away from windows, doors and ducts.

Three out of every five home fire deaths result from fires in homes with no smoke alarms, according to the National Fire Protection Association. Test your smoke alarms every month and replace the battery at least once a year.

Carbon Monoxide Detectors – Carbon monoxide is an invisible, odorless gas that can kill.  CO alarms should be installed in a central location outside each bedroom and on every level of the home. Like you smoke alarms, change the batteries and test them.

Get Rid of Unwanted Medicines – Take your unwanted or expired medicines to a prescription drop box or take-back event near you, or drop by your local Post Rock District Extension office and pick up an easy to use drug deactivation disposal bag.

Spring Cleaning – With the warmer weather comes a desire to shine and polish your home. Keep your family safe around poisons in the home. Keep all chemicals, household cleaners, and medicines in locked cabinets or out of the reach of children. Keep the National Poison Control Center number (800-222-1222) in your cell phone contacts.

By: Brenda Langdon

Are You Throwing Away Food (and Money and Time)?

Posted on by djbechard

Families living in the U.S. throw out about 15% of the food and 10% of the beverages they buy! This means that if your family spends $100/week on groceries you could be throwing away up to $25/week, or $100/month in discarded food! Imagine what you could do with that extra money – and with the extra time needed to shop for the food that gets wasted. Below are ways you can reduce waste in you your home to cash in on saving.

Organize. Save money at the grocery store by what you do before leaving the house. Check our food supplies and plan meals around what you already have. Use the oldest foods in your cupboard and freezer first. Make a grocery list for items you need to buy. Avoid buying perishables that aren’t in your menu plan. Or, adjust your meal plan if you buy perishables that you didn’t originally plan to get.

Buy fewer perishable foods in each shopping trip. Buy only the amount of fresh meats, fruits, vegetables, and other perishables that you can eat in a few days. Stuffing a refrigerator full of food makes it harder to know what is inside. Forgotten food is more likely to spoil. Buy canned, frozen, or dried foods to use until you shop again.

Serve small portions first. Rather than risk wasting part of a large served meal, plan to offer a second portions if you or a family member are still hungry.

Plan for “planned-overs.” You may have more product than a recipe calls for, such as the extra half package of some food. Or you may have more food than your family can eat at one meal. Make a plan to eat these foods later. Could you serve it for lunch tomorrow? Use it in a dinner salad? Freeze extras for later use?

Food patrol. Check in your refrigerator daily for foods that need to be eaten soon. If they are raw, cook seafood, poultry, and meats in the first day or two. Be creative, or find a recipe to use up certain foods. For instance, us a too-ripe banana in a smoothie. Chop rubbery carrots or other vegetables and cook them in a soup or in spaghetti sauce.

By: Jamie Rathbun

2023 Extra Help Limits

Posted on by djbechard

The Medicare Part D Low Income Subsidy, sometimes referred to as Extra Help, assists people with limited income and resources with paying for their prescriptions.

Extra Help is administered by the Social Security Administration and is estimated to have an average value of $5,300 per year per beneficiary.

Income limits are set based on the federal poverty guidelines which were updated in January. The Extra Help income limit for partial help for a single individual is $22,110 per year or $1,843 per month. The income limit for a couple is $29,820 per year, or $2,485 per month.

Resources or asset limits to receive full Extra Help are $9,090 for an individual and $13,630 for a couple. Partial help limits are $15,160 for an individual and $30,240 for a couple. These limits do not include a $1,500 burial allowance.

Beneficiaries must meet both income and asset guidelines. If you or someone you know thinks they might qualify or have questions, contact Brenda at 785-346-2521 or bklangdon@ksu.edu.

By: Brenda Langdon

Fruits and Veggies – More Matters!

Posted on by djbechard

Recommended amounts of fruits and vegetables range from 3 to 6 ½ cups per day. How much you need depends on your age, activity level, and gender.

Instead of doing the math, you could just keep it simple: Fill half of your plate with colorful fruits and vegetables at every meal and snack.

Research shows that fruits and vegetables promote good health. How? They contain essential nutrients (vitamins, minerals, dietary fiber) and other healthful substances.

People who eat generous amounts of fruits and veggies as part of a healthful diet reduce their risk of getting a chronic disease, including stroke, heart attack, and certain cancers.

Eating fruits and vegetables instead of higher-calorie foods can help you lose weight and maintain a healthy weight. The water and fiber in fruits and vegetables will add volume to your dishes, so that you can eat the same amount of food with fewer calories. Most fruits and vegetables are naturally low in fat and calories, yet are filling.

 

If you are looking to add more fruits and veggies to your meals, purchase a Simply Produce bundle from:

  • Gene’s Heartland Foods in Smith Center,
  • Girard’s IGA in Osborne,
  • Kier’s Thriftway in Mankato.

 

By: Jamie Rathbun

Severe Weather Preparedness Week

Posted on by djbechard

The National Weather Service in Topeka has designated March 6-10 as Severe Weather Preparedness Week in Kansas including a statewide tornado drill on Tuesday, March 7th at 10 a.m. All Kansans are urged to participate in the drill by practicing the plans they have in place for seeking shelter from a tornado.

Anytime there’s a wind threat, whether it’s a tornado or severe winds, the best thing to do is to get centrally located in your house – typically a bathroom that has four interior walls around it, or underneath the stairwell in a basement. You want as many walls between you and the outside in all directions.

Keep a weather safety kit that includes such items as non-perishable food, water, blankets, boots, extra clothes, helmets, weather radio, batteries, a charging device for phones and even a map to track the path of the storm while listening to news reports.

Parents should practice the plan with children well in advance of severe weather threats; doing so helps to ease children’s anxiety in a real emergency.

To stay safe in severe weather, it helps to have situational awareness all the time. Whether you’re driving down the road or going to bed at night, know the forecast and know what’s going on around you all the time. Forecasts aren’t perfect; they can change very quickly. So, make a habit of checking the weather in the morning, during the day and before you go to bed.

By: Brenda Langdon