Administration

Wellness Corner: March is National Nutrition Month!

By: Melanie Martin

Originally created by the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics, Nutrition Month is a nutrition education campaign focusing on the importance of making healthy food choices.

The American Heart Association encourages everyone to reduce your risk for heart disease, stroke and other diseases by eating healthier.

In a recent email,

Jacob Pennington

with the American Heart Association, shared tips on eating healthier.

He also shared something interesting, and that is how to feed picky eaters, especially kids.

Does your household have at least one of those?

Here are 5 tips for dealing with picky eaters:

2. Remember it takes 11 tries for kids to like something.

So keep serving them broccoli! Let them inspect it, and ask them to take at least one bite.

3. Don’t force a child to clean their plate.

Teach them to eat only until they are full. The recommended portion for children is one tablespoon per age of the child.

4. Shop and cook with your kids.

Let them pick out produce for dinner and let them do age appropriate cooking tasks like stirring or measuring ingredients. Involving them will

empower them.

5. Serve kids (and adults) fruits and veggies during snack time when they are at their hungriest, but not too close to dinner.

1. Prepare one meal that everyone likes.

Don’t make special meals for the picky eater. Serving salty chips, cookies or even sugary granola bars and artificially-flavored gummy ‘fruit’ snacks can be a quick option, but not the healthiest solution.

Administration

Tax Scams to Watch Out for This Tax Season

Tax related online scams remain a popular type of phishing scam (see December newsletter for more information about phishing).

Below are a few stats to keep things in perspective.

• Younger people reported losing money to fraud more often than older people: Age 20 – 29 = 40% | Age 70+ = 18%

• When people older than 70+ had a loss, the median loss was much higher: Age 20 – 29 = $400 | Age 70 – 79 = $621 Age 80+ = $1092

• Imposter Scams: o 1 in 5 people lost money ($328 million reported lost)

• Identity Theft: 23% credit card fraud | 46% tax fraud

Beware of any communication you have that claim to be from the IRS and requests payment.

By: Darren Cantrill

• “Update your tax filing information” – you may receive another type of email that requests your personal information. Always call the IRS directly to deal with your tax returns.

• “Tax payment was deducted from your account” – a different email (or a potential phone recording) informing you that a payment was deducted from your bank account. Always watch your accounts closely and monitor your online transactions.

IRS will not initiate any contact with taxpayers to request their financial or personal information via social media channels, emails, or text messages. The IRS will always contact you through postal mail.

Tax season is a well-known time for phishing and spreading malware. Here are just a few to be wary of. restricted” - you may receive an email that states your tax return is locked or restricted and the only way to unlock is to submit your personal information. Always call the IRS directly to deal with your tax returns.

Here are five tips to keep safe during tax season:

1. Be aware that the IRS does not initiate taxpayer communications through email – EVER!

2. One of the biggest indications that an email is fake is when it addresses you as “sir,” “madam,” or “taxpayer.”

3. Do NOT click on any links or open any attachments claiming to be from the IRS, “Income Tax Department” or your tax preparation company.

4. Report any emails claiming to be form the IRS by forwarding the emails to phishing@irs.gov.

5. Never respond to unsolicited emails requesting scanned copies of personal documents.