From: Klinger,Kimberly K

To: Cruz,Margaret L
Subject: FNP Awards
Date: Tuesday, July 9, 2019 2:30:24 PM
Attachments: image001.png

Congratulations on being nominated for an FNP Superior Accomplishment Award.  Below are the
wonderful things your colleagues shared about you.
 
Margaret Cruz
 
Position:  PA
# Nominations: 1 
Nominated by:  EPM – Ashley Kelley
 
Briefly describe the nominee’s job.
The job of a program assistant is to provide nutrition education to all ages who are eligible or
currently receive SNAP benefits. Besides delivering the program, the program assistant also plans
and prepares for their classes, has continuous on the job training and conducts reports.
 
Why does this person deserve recognition?
She deserves recognition because of the continued impact that she has had in X County. She has
only been in her position since X but her impact in X county has made it feel like she has been with
the program for years. The Family Nutrition Program in X county had been gone for a little over two
years before she came. Luckily, I was able to contact most of the previous sites so that we were able
to go back and provide nutrition education to them. Two months after starting, she was providing
nutrition education to 3-4 different sites a week. She is a fast learner and very ambitious and during
the summer after only being with FNP for about 6 months, she was providing nutrition education 5
days a week to 4 different sites. Considering she is the only PA in her county, she has constantly
exceeded PA efficiency each month and from October 2018-January 2019 her numbers were, 157%,
170%, 138%, and 131%. This is remarkable because these months are around the holidays and are
typically slower for most PA’s. She is also very creative in that she helped to create most of the
Cooking Matter for Chefs and Kids Sample Lesson Outline that is currently on Canvas. She is also
great at getting sites to have PSE’s. We went from not having any for fiscal year 2018 because the
county didn’t have a program assistant for most of the time, to now having 4 sites who have brand
new gardens or receive support for their school and community. She is a very hard worker and she is
a great person to work with. With her positive attitude and willingness to go the extra mile, she has
been able to help bring back the Family Nutrition Program to X county in a positive way.     
 
Is this work above and beyond his/her job description?  If yes, why?
Yes, this work goes above and beyond her job description because when she was only here for less
than a year she decided to use the little free time that she had from learning the curricula and create
the Cooking Matters for Chefs and Kids Outline so that she could be able to implement the lessons at
her sites easier, which was then put on Canvas for everyone to use. Although she constantly exceeds
her PA efficiency, she is always willing to add more sites to her schedule. 
 
Do you have any figures or statistics to support their nomination?
She was able to get four different sites to implement PSE's since October 2018. She constantly
exceeds PA efficiency even during the slow months where her efficiency was 157% (October 2018),
170% (November 2018), 138% (December 2018), and 131% (January 2019). 
 
Kimberly Klinger, MS
Administrative Coordinator
Family, Youth and Community Sciences
UF/IFAS Extension Family Nutrition Program
1408 Sabal Palm Dr., 2nd Floor, PO Box 110320
Gainesville, FL 32611
 
Phone: 352-273-3555   Fax: 392-6705
kimby@ufl.edu