Making Healthy Lifestyle Choices and Citizen Education
Making Healthy Lifestyle Choices and Citizen Education
Dockery, Lindsay, Doggett, Wells
Faithful Families
Local Food Systems
Business Retention and Expansion
The obesity epidemic threatens the quality of life years of life of Kentuckians. Obese individuals are at increased risk for many chronic health conditions, including type 2 diabetes, heart disease, stroke, and some types of cancers. The obesity rate in Kentucky increased 90% over the last 15 years. Thirty-percent of individuals in the Commonwealth report no leisure-time physical activity. Increased consumption of unhealthy foods, stress, and built environments that promote physical inactivity are largely responsible for the obesity epidemic.
Nutrition education programs, local / home garden, and farmer's markets help families gain access to food and stretch food dollars; communities to decrease hunger; and local food assistance programs to educate recipients on healthy safe food preparation methods, importance of sustainable practices, and improvement of individual/local gardening practices. Citizens receive education on senior issues, parenting and low vision resources. Agents, paraprofessionals, and volunteers are pivotal in training consumers and producers to maximize local access to food products from farm to table.
Increase in the practice and promotion of physical activity and healthy eating.
Improve access and availability of local foods to the community. Provide education and resource availability regarding senior social issues, low visibility and parenting.
Practice of physical activity and healthy food choices in families and communities through decreased time of sedentary behaviors, maintaining appropriate calorie intake, and practicing healthy lifestyle decision-making that strengthen individuals ability to cope with normal life stressors.
Residents will increase practices related to Community and Economic Development by increased participation in job preparedness programs, involvement in local community events, developing new jobs and entrepreneurship opportunities, and adopting fiscally responsible behaviors.
Change in awareness, knowledge, opinions, skills, and attitudes needed to make informed choices regarding childhood obesity, adult weight management, the practice and promotion of physical activity, and financial and mental well being.
Change Knowledge, Opinions, Skills, and / or aspirations in understanding of issues related to local foods, individual and market gardening, nutrition based on local food access, and farmer's markets.
Long-Term Outcome: There will be a decrease in obesity incidents related to youth and adult. Obesity will decrease due to increase daily physical activity and healthier eating choices. Youth and adults will also understand that having a better hold on financial and mental health will help decrease obesity issues.
Indicator: Increase in health care savings due to lower obesity rates and decreasing the rate of chronic disease among youth and adults.
Method: surveys
Timeline: On-Going
Intermediate Outcome: Youth and Adults will practice healthy food choices and will learn to build healthy eating patterns. They will also practice increase physical activity and better mental and financial health.
Indicator: Better nutritious choices, improvement in physical activity to their daily routine and understanding mental health and the affects of it.
Method: post surveys, follow up surveys
Timeline: On-Going
Initial Outcome: Youth and Adult will learn to distinguish what healthy food choices are. They will also learn the importance of practicing daily physical activity and the affects that financial and mental health can have on their well being.
Indicator: learning to build a healthy plate, importance of physical activity and mental health. how saving financially can help with obesity rates.
Method: survey
Timeline: On-Going
Long-Term Outcome: Improve access and availability of local foods to the community.
Indicator: Increase in local food business, increase in farmer's market participation and use, increase in guided preparation and processing of foods.
Method: local governmental and agency reporting, program survey,
Timeline: on-going
Intermediate Outcome: Residents will increase practices related to seeking out local foods, eating healthy local food options, develop skills to create viable local foods business situations, increase farmer's market participation, engage in appropriate local food processing.
Indicator: access to local food systems, increase participation in farmer's / local markets, increase participation in programming related to local food systems, nutrition education, and preparation
Method: program survey, local agency or government reporting, increase in program attendance
Timeline: on-going
Initial Outcome: Change Knowledge, Opinions, Skills, and / or aspirations in understanding of issues related to local foods, individual and market gardening, nutrition based on local food access, and farmer's markets.
Indicator: demand for program participation related to local food systems, food preparation, nutrition education, and individual sustainable gardening practices.
Method: program survey and attendance
Timeline: on-going
Audience: Youth
Project or Activity: LEAP
Content or Curriculum: LEAP curriculum
Inputs: Kentucky Cooperative Extension Agents, NEP Program assistants, CES Publications
Date: Ongoing
Audience: Adults
Project or Activity: Physical Activity Programs
Content or Curriculum: Matter of Balance Curriculum, Get Moving Kentucky
Input: KY Cooperative Extension Agents, CES publications, Extension Specialist
Dates: Ongoing
Audience: Adults
Project or Activity: Get Fit Fayette County
Content or Curriculum: Various Curriculums
Input, KY Cooperative Extension Agents, public and private health agencies, non profit organizations
Dates: Ongoing
Audience: Adults
Project or Activity: Kentucky Plate it Up/ Farmer's Market
Content or Curriculum: Plate it Up Curriculum
Input: KY Cooperative Extension Agents, CES publications, KDA, NEP assistants
Dates: Summer, Fall and Spring
Audience:
Project or Activity: Better Bites
Content or Curriculum: Better Bites Curriculum; Social Marketing and Policy Exploratory Pilot Study
Inputs: Kentucky Cooperative Extension Service Agents, Specialists, Volunteers, CES publications; local, state, and federal agencies.
Date: ongoing
Audience: Adults, Teens & Youth
Project or Activity: Phone calls, e-mails, and office visit customer service opportunities
Content or Curriculum: Available resources through CES publications, specialists, and listed curricula
Inputs: Kentucky Cooperative Extension Service Agents, Program Assistants, Specialists, Volunteers, CES publications; local, state, and federal agencies.
Date: On-Going
Audience: Youth
Project or Activity: Lexington Drug Free Projects
Content or Curriculum: Health Rocks, Drug prevention
Inputs 4-H Agents, 4-H Assistants, FCS Agents, LFUCG, Police Department
Dates: ongoing
Audience: Teens & Youth
Project or Activity: Cooking/Food & Nutrition
Content or curriculum: 4-H curriculum; FCS curriculum; Plate It Up recipes
Inputs: 4-H Agents,4-H assistants, volunteers
Date: day camps, after-school programs
Audience: Teens & Youth
Project or Activity: 4-H Cooking Club(s)
Content or curriculum: 4-H foods curriculum; FCS curriculum; Plate It Up recipes
Inputs: 4-H Agent, volunteers
Date: monthly club meetings and as requested
Audience: Adult and Youth
Project or Activity: SNAP-Ed/ Double dollars
Content or Curriculum: NEP curriculum, CES Publications
Inputs: EFNEP and SNAP Ed assistants, County Extension Agents
Date: On-Going
Audience: Community residents
Project or Activity: Growing Community program
Content or Curriculum: ID-128
Inputs: Volunteers, collaborating agencies, LFUCG, County agents
Date: Annually in May
Audience: Fayette county School Students
Project or Activity: Agriculture Education for Fayette County School Students.
Content or Curriculum: Teach Students about Agriculture and show where food comes from.
Inputs:Leaders, Agents, Fayette County Schools, Locust Trace School.
Date: Spring and Fall.
Audience: Community Residents & Businesses
Project: Local Foods Committee & Coordinator
Content & Curriculum: Collaborating Agencies, LFUCG, Agents, Specialist
Date: All Year
Audience: Fayette County Schools Administration and Board
Project: School Health and Wellness Policy
Content & curriculum: Collaborating Agencies, Specialist and CES curriculum
Date: Ongoing
Audience: Senior Adults
Projects: Challenges of Aging, Grandparents Raising Relatives, Next Best Years
Content and Curriculum: Collaborating Agencies, Specialists, and CES curriculum
Date: ongoing
Audience: Adults
Projects: Food and Nutrition
Content: Food for Thought, Food Preservation, Adult Cooking, Champion Food Volunteers
Date: Ongoing
Audience: Community residents
Project or Activity: Master gardener projects related to food production
Content or Curriculum: Publications
Inputs:volunteers, specialists, county agents
Date: Ongoing
Audience:Community residents
Project or Activity: Growing Community program
Content or Curriculum: ID-128
Inputs:Volunteers, collaborating agencies, LFUCG, County agents
Date: Annually in May
Audience: Adults
Project or Activity: Farmer's Market/Plate it Up
Content or Curriculum: Plate it Up, KY Department of Ag
Inputs: Cooperative Extension Agent, specialists, KDA, Lexington Farmer's Market
Date: On-going
Audience: Adults, Teens & Youth
Project or Activity: Phone calls, e-mails, and office visit customer service opportunities
Content or Curriculum: Available resources through CES publications, specialists, and listed curricula
Inputs: Kentucky Cooperative Extension Service Agents, Program Assistants, Specialists, Volunteers, Kentucky CES publications; local, state, and federal agencies.
Date: On-Going
Author: Diana Doggett
Major Program: Accessing Nutritious Foods (general)
Fayette County Extension Family and Consumer Sciences agent and the Nutrition Education Program assistants delivered a monthly workshop based upon the 2019 Food & Nutrition Calendar recipes. ‘Cooking through the Calendar’ featured exploration, discussion, demonstration and sampling of seasonal food. Ten workshops were presented with 187 participating and 75% with limited income. This series’ audience consisted of 10% African American, 1% Asian and 89% Cauc
Author: Jamie Dockery
Major Program: Home & Consumer Horticulture
Recent COVID events created an environment where it was more challenging to reach clients with our gardening advice. The shelter in place protocol left the Fayette County extension horticulture program facing a new normal. Our path forward was clear, as we had struggled to find time to adopt the social media strategy we knew we wanted. The agent is not terribly tech savvy and our younger, capable horticulture technician wasn't an active social media user. We jumped in head first one day
Author: Jamie Dockery
Major Program: Local Food Systems
The Fayette Extension Horticulture program has held a Growing Community event for the last 12 years to promote vegetable gardening to under served audiences. Traditionally this has taken the form of short training sessions offered on a Saturday in May with the reward for attending 4 session being a bag of gardening resources, seeds, and transplants. It has always been very popular. The Covid pandemic left us unable to follow our usual training approach. We decided to just give away the garden ki
Author: Diana Doggett
Major Program: Embracing Life as We Age (general)
Of the total population in Fayette County, 20% of citizens are projected to be 65+ years by 2025. Kentucky’s senior adult population will nearly triple with the largest increase among those over 85 years of age (US Census). To assist seniors in their quest to remain healthy, vital and independent, Fayette Cooperative Extension Family and Consumer Sciences partner with LFUCG Social Services, BGADD, UK Public Health and local care providers and volunteers to provide conference fo
Author: Jamie Dockery
Major Program: Home & Consumer Horticulture
The Fayette County horticulture program offers homeowner gardening classes to address all the interest in food production and landscape management. We call this program Gardener's Toolbox. Last year we delivered information to over 4000 contacts. Here is a testimonial from one of those attendees:"I have been coming to your classes for two years now and appreciate your expertise and sharing of knowledge! We have had 2 small gardens (8' square) for about a decade. We
Author: Diana Doggett
Major Program: Empowering Community Leaders (general)
Nationally, 3.2B consumers reported losing more than $1.9B to fraud in 2019 according to the Federal Trade Commission. 26,870 Kentuckians lost $10.6M in total fraud, identity theft and other reports in 2019. Kentucky Scam Alerts aims to combat the steep climb in reports of scams targeting Kentuckians by phone, mail and email. In January 2019, this Family and Consumer Sciences agent presented Scams! Be Informed to 147 District 4 Homemaker leaders in nine counties. The top
Author: Diana Doggett
Major Program: Plate It Up! Kentucky Proud
Plate It Up! Kentucky Proud provides healthy, great tasting recipes using Kentucky Proud products in order to increase consumer purchase, preparation, and preservation of Kentucky grown and value-added commodities, through marketing and educational collaborations. The project is a Family and Consumer Sciences Extension driven partnership with the School of Human Environmental Sciences and the Kentucky Department of Agriculture. Since 2011 over 1M recipe cards and hundreds of programs
Author: Jamie Dockery
Major Program: Home & Consumer Horticulture
In response to a survey Fayette County Residents indicated they would like more educational classes about gardening and food production from Cooperative Extension. In an effort to meet this need, the Fayette County Horticulture program dramatically expanded our Gardener’s Toolbox series of classes to include over twenty educational programs on a variety of sustainable living and gardening topics. Wherever possible, classes were designed to feature demonstrations or actual hands-on activiti
Author: Beau Neal
Major Program: Farm Management
After talking with a few farmers/producers in Fayette County, I realized there may be a serious need for H2A or migrant workers to have some guidance and health related information in Spanish once they arrive. H2A employees are extremely important to many of our farmers/producers and when spring time rolls around, these producers rely heavily upon them in regard to their farming operation. No matter what country some of these folks may come from, in many cases they are from very isol