Orangeburg resident Marcella Fogle was among them.

“Sometimes people will tell you something, but don’t do the follow up to see, ‘Are you doing that? Have you made an adjustment?’ Here, we actually get recipes and a box of food where you have some things to actually make them. I think it’s worthwhile,” Fogle said.

Clemson Rural Health’s Clemson Health Clinic at Orangeburg is located at 1181 Hutto St. ManageTogether is among the clinic’s diabetes support services, and is open to women over age 18.

Clemson Rural Health hosts the program in collaboration with MUSC Health-Orangeburg. Health coaching, nutrition education and remote patient monitoring with ongoing assistance from nurse practitioners, community health workers and registered dieticians are among the services women receive.

Jessica Morrison is a registered dietician who led the cooking demonstration at the MUSC Orangeburg IT Building on March 7 with the assistance of Timothy Wiley, a senior nutrition major at South Carolina State University.

Morrison said the cooking demonstration helps kick off March as National Nutrition Month.

“It was created to help provide nutrition information and education and invite people all over to learn about healthy eating and physical activity habits. So we’re excited to kick off the month with this,” Morrison said.

“Our clinic services include some primary care, acute care, mobile clinics that go out into the community and then we have community health workers. But our biggest project would be our diabetes management program,” she said.

She said ManageTogether is a six-month program. Participants can enroll in different components.

“As far as the nutrition component goes, they have access to me to do one-one-one nutrition counseling. I also lead a veggie prescription program, which is growing in popularity with health clinics,” Morrison said.

She said the clinic partners with FoodShare Bamberg for the delivery of food boxes twice a month for participants in the ManageTogether program.

“The first pickup of the month is for the cooking class and food demonstration. The goal is to help participants learn how to utilize the food that’s in the produce prescription program,” Morrison said.

The second box pickup of the month is for distribution among participants in the diabetes self-management class, which is taught between Morrison and the clinic’s nurse practitioner.

“Through our partnership with FoodShare Bamberg, participants get 15 to 20 different varieties of fresh fruits and vegetables. During the cooking class, I usually highlight one or two recipes with the ingredients that are found in the box,” she said.

“I also do nutrition education,” said Morrison, who focused on label reading with an emphasis on how to manage diabetes through nutrition during the March 7 cooking demonstration.

“I try to make it fun and interactive,” said Morrison, who fielded several questions from an inquisitive group of ladies. They asked everything from how much sugar is too much sugar to what are healthy versus non-healthy starches.

Morrison also made it a point during the demonstration to advise participants that not all carbohydrates are bad.

“Pairing carbs with proteins will minimize blood sugar spikes,” she said, before advising the participants to try to steer clear of a lot of added sugars in their food and drink.

Cooking with heart-healthy oils such as avocado and olive oils instead of saturated fats that are solid at room temperature such as butter were among the other healthy tips she shared.

Fogle said, “I enjoy actually getting information from someone and being able to ask questions. If she doesn’t know, she’ll find out the answer for us.”

“I also enjoy being around other people who have some of the same illnesses. People are at different stages of the program, but being here for a while doesn’t mean that you know everything,” she said.

A diabetes portion plate, which includes non-starchy vegetables and starchy foods and protein, with fats and oils in the center, was also shared during the class.

“This is something that I reinforce during my counseling and cooking classes. Then I’ve got some tubes that have the amount of sugar, fat and sodium in different foods, as well,” Morrison said.

“Good nutrition means having access to and eating nutritious foods to support your body to grow, maintain health and protect your body from illness and disease like diabetes, heart disease and cancer,” she said.

With the American Diabetes Association reporting that more than 500,000 adults in the state have diabetes, with more than 120,000 unaware that they have it, Morrison considers the nutrition education worthwhile.

“A lot of folks have undiagnosed diabetes and hypertension and high cholesterol. People don’t really need to follow a special diet for diabetes, hypertension or high cholesterol,” she said.

“Eating some of the same foods can help manage all three, including low-sodium foods, seasoning with less salt and more herbs and spices, drinking lots of water, eating lean protein and getting enough fiber. That’s really important,” she said.

The Clemson Health Clinic at Orangeburg is open from 8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Monday through Friday. To schedule an appointment, or get more information on ManageTogether and other clinic programs and services, call 803-516-4227.