NACCHO’s Podcast From Washington: Boulder County Environmental Health Division in Colorado’s Training Program to Improve Food Handling and Safety Practices

The NACCHO Podcast Series

Washington, DC, October 17, 2024 — On this podcast episode, the National Association of County and City Health Officials’ (NACCHO) Director of Government Affairs, Victoria Van de Vate, and Lauren Soule, Government Affairs Senior Specialist, provide insights into federal funding now that Congress is out of session until after the election. They also discuss a recent Coalition to Stop Flu congressional briefing featuring NACCHO member Dr. Dianna Abney, Health Officer at the Charles County Health Department in Maryland, a 30th anniversary of the Vaccines for Children Program event featuring NACCHO’s Board President Dr. Michael Kilkenny, and an open letter from NACCHO CEO Lori Tremmel Freeman to local health departments impacted by the recent hurricanes. For more updates and to subscribe to NACCHO’s weekly newsletter, visit: www.naccho.org/advocacy.

Later in the program (5:03), in this second installment of a five-part Food Safety series, Nicholas Adams, Senior Program Analyst on NACCHO’s Food Safety Team, is joined by Lane Drager, Consumer Protection Program Coordinator at Boulder County Public Health in Boulder County, Colorado. Boulder County has served for several years as a mentor for NACCHO’s Food Safety Mentorship Program under the NEHA-FDA Retail Flexible Funding Model, NACCHO’s Food Safety Workgroup, and with the Council to Improve Foodborne Illness Outbreak Response. In their conversation, Drager discusses Boulder County Environmental Health Division’s oral learner train the trainer program that provides essential food safety training to retail food service staff, regardless of their spoken language. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, retail food establishments experienced a significant labor shortage that led to burnout and high turnover. The labor shortage forced establishments to hire staff inexperienced in food handling and in recent years, it has been critical for local health departments to update their education and training programs to teach proper food handling practices and information on food safety to a wider audience. Drager also shared the improvements in Boulder County’s food safety management systems that can help inform other local health departments in their food safety work.

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About NACCHO

The National Association of County and City Health Officials (NACCHO) represents the over 3,300 local governmental health departments across the country. These city, county, metropolitan, district, and tribal departments work every day to protect and promote health and well-being for all people in their communities. For more information, visit www.naccho.org.