LAPLACE — LSU AgCenter Nutrition Extension Agent Cynthia Clifton conducts quarterly Advisory Leadership Council meetings, which she has built on throughout her seven years in St. John the Baptist Parish.

“If I have touched at least one person to reduce or get off their medication, I feel that I have done a great service,” Clifton said.

Clifton said she saw a need for promoting healthier lifestyle among senior citizens and connected in a consistent and sustainable way, helping seniors learn how nutrition impacts their wellbeing. Teaching how to read nutrition labels was a major lesson for all seniors, because they always focused on calories and not the sodium or carbohydrates in their diet.

Learning how to read the nutrition labels and understand the nutrition label has really helped some of the seniors decrease their medication for high blood pressure and diabetes.

Those efforts were part of the reason Clifton was recognized at the Louisiana Extension Association of Family and Consumer Sciences Convention in New Orleans.

Clifton was awarded the Mary W. Wells Diversity Award and the Community Partnership Award.

The Mary W. Wells Diversity Award is presented in support of the Cooperative Extension System’s emphasis on diversity and pluralism. It is a national program to respond to the changing work force, population and Extension audience.

The Community Partnership Award recognized Clifton meeting the needs of families through collaboration with groups, agencies and consumers.

Clifton partnered with the Department of Health and Human Services Homer Joseph Community Center in Reserve, where she conducted news for a healthy living program and exercise classes on Tuesdays and Thursdays from 3 to 4:30 p.m.

The classes focus on improving strength so the participants could stay healthy, have more energy, balance their health, prevent or delay some diseases like heart disease, diabetes, osteoporosis and reduce depression.