RIDGWAY, COLO. — The Grain Foods Foundation has been giving extra focus to Hispanic outreach during Healthy Baby Month, according to the foundation’s agency Mullen.

Kristin Patterson, a vice-president and account director at Mullen, said the added effort was prompted in part by new data showing only 17% of Spanish-speaking women of childbearing age in the United States are taking a multivitamin containing folic acid daily.

"This survey (conducted by the March of Dimes and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention) was the first nationally representative folic acid awareness survey to focus on this population, making it particularly interesting to Hispanic media," Ms. Patterson said.

The foundation has been working with Sylvia Klinger, an advisory board member, who as the foundation’s spokesperson emphasized enriched grains as a convenient and tasty dietary source of folic acid and as an economical alternative to vitamin supplements.

Ms. Klinger has appeared on Telemundo Chicago, the nationally broadcast Valder Beebe radio show, National Latino Public Radio and HITN-TV, the Hispanic Information and Telecommunications Network. Print interviews also will be published, Ms. Patterson said.