Author: LaToya Drake
Major Program: Making Healthy Lifestyle Choices (general)
LaToya Drake, Barren County Extension Agent for Family and Consumer Sciences was a new face to Extension but not to the County. The Agent was born and raised in Barren County and spent much of her career serving her home community in other roles. Despite being familiar with the County and various resources, the Agent’s exposure to Extension was limited before becoming employed with the Cooperative Service in September of 2018. “As someone who grew up with less financial resource
Author: Ronda Rex
“A healthy lifestyle involves many choices. Among them, choosing a balanced diet or healthy eating plan. So how do you choose a healthy eating plan? Let’s begin by defining what a healthy eating plan is.According to the Dietary Guidelines for Americans 2015–2020, a healthy eating plan: Emphasizes fruits, vegetables, whole grains, fat-free or low-fat milk and milk products, includes lean meats, poultry, fish, beans, eggs, and nuts, is low in saturated fats, trans fats, cho
Author: Denise Wooley
Throughout summer break some kids take a "break" from making the healthiest choices when it comes to what they eat, drink and do for physical activity. As a reminder to stay moving and make healthy choices the Blender Bike when on a road tour. The Blender Bike toured this summer to 9 different summer camp groups and made learning about healthy drink choices more fun! The Blender Bike is a fun and interactive teaching tool that almost 350 kids got to utilize to peddle their way to
Author: Valerie Holland
Despite a 2% decline in Jefferson County’s food insecurity rate over the last 5 years, local and national sources still identify high food insecurity issues in west Louisville. This national data shows a direct correlation between food insecurity and diet-related diseases such as type 2 diabetes, heart disease and obesity. These same diseases afflict the residents of west Louisville area of Jefferson County. In west Louisville, 37% of the residents report having high blood pressure, 7
Author: Christy Ramey
In order to promote increased physical activity and its importance in our overall health and wellness, the Get Active Simpson (GAS) Program was developed by the Get Healthy Simpson Coalition and the University of Kentucky Cooperative Extension FCS agent. The program uses the physical activity mile (PAM) as fifteen minutes of continued movement to represent a walking mile. Teams are formed and captains are required to report to the Simpson County FCS agent weekly totals for the team
Author: Rita Stewart
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 11% of adults in Kentucky have diabetes and 34% of adults ages 19 years and over were obese in 2016. 29.8% of adults ages 18 years and over also reported no leisure-time exercise in the past month. In order to empower participants to take better control of their own health, this Family and Consumer Sciences Agent has taught families to improve health and well-being by choosing a nutritious diet, increasing health literacy t
Author: Lynn Blankenship
Sumitomo of Edmonton is a factory that manufactures car parts. Employees often work long shifts, in a fast paced, detail oriented setting. Employees work at times, up to seven days a week during periods of high production demand. Many Sumitomo employees have suffered from stress related health impacts such as Type II diabetes, overweight, obesity and cardiovascular health issues, but they are all working on improving their wellness. For over 10 years, this FCS Extension A
This Extension Agent for Family and Consumer Sciences education, attended the certification training offered through FCS Extension in December 2018, for Stories, Songs and Stretches a Yoga informed active story time, language and movement enrichment program, designed for use with preschool populations. This Extension Agent completed the post training requirements of creating, running and completing an evaluation, for three sessions of Stories, Songs and Stretches with both of the Metcalfe
Author: Julia Wilson
Family Lifestyles Television ShowThe Extension Agents for Family and Consumer Science Education, in eight counties of the Mammoth Cave Area that can access the Proclaim Broadcasting network, WPBM TV Channel 31 via cable, dish, digital or antenna television have partnered to take over hosting of the 30 minute, weekly Family Lifestyles television show. Fifty five episodes were taped and aired from October 16, 2017 – October 15, 2018.The eight Mammoth Cave Area Counties that currently ha
Author: Kendyl Redding
The Family and Consumer Sciences Agent and SNAP-Ed assistant began a monthly program featuring the Nutrition Education Program 2019 recipe calendar, called First Friday Feast. On the first Friday of each month, participants cook the recipe of the month as a group. The agent and program assistant also choose a lesson to go along with recipe. In the past six months, the group has covered topics such as reducing sugar-sweetened beverages, food safety, ways to be more active, reading nutrition label
Author: Cecelia Hostilo
The Trigg County Senior Center is an Allied Community Services Agency that serves older adults by providing low cost lunches, social activities, and educational programming. Each year funding to this valuable agency gets cut and they turn to the Trigg County Extension Service to help fill in the gaps that they can no longer porvide on their own. The FCS agent and the SNAP para-professional make regular visits each month to provide health and nutrition lessons. The ANR agent and
Author: Hazel Jackson
It the beginning of April, Rockcastle County FCS hosted its first Cooking Together/Eating Together Dinner Social. 5 adultl/child groups attended the new program an additional 4 children attended with a friend and his/her parent. The children ranged in age from 4 to 12 years old; 4 youth attended with a parent and 1 attended with a grandparent. The FCS agent recruited 2 volunteers to assist as well. The children were active in preparation of the dinner meal and made the d
Author: Alivia Faris
The life of the high school senior is full of “adult” decisions: selecting a college, picking a major, choosing a career path, and moving out! Although today’s adolescents are technologically advanced compared to prior generations, they sometimes lack basic practical living skills. After being approached by school officials with this very same concern, the Family Consumer Science Agent and 4-H Youth Development Agent decided a crash course was needed. The Adulting 101 program w
Author: Danielle Ford
We all are guilty of watching the infomercials and thinking to ourselves they make it look so easy to operate that new appliance that I just need it in my kitchen…the price is very reasonable, I can work with that….I just need it for my kitchen, I know I will cook all the time with that thing….I just got to have it. And there it comes in the mail all shiny and new, and yet it sits on the counter collecting dust. But that is far from the case in Marion County. This year we of
Author: Paul Andrew Rideout
It is well documented that youth in Kentucky falls behind with healthy habits; in particularly with youth. More and more, youth are spending more time indoors with television and video games instead of outdoor, more physically active activities. The Henderson County Extension office put together a summer program to encourage healthy habits and learn about nature and the area we live in. For 8 weeks, participants joined the Henderson County Horticulture agent for short 2-3 mile hikes
Author: Tamera Magee
Substance abuse including the abuse of prescription drugs is a major concern nationwide. This problem impacts the families, the economy, the criminal justice system, and medical/emergency response systems. The number of families who have lost loved ones has increased annually over the past ten years. According to the 2017 Overdose Fatality Report prepared by the Kentucky Office of Drug Control Policy, twenty-five people died from an overdose. In an effort to educate our communi
Author: Luciana Hockersmith
The Extension Agent for Family and Consumer Sciences Education in Metcalfe County compiled a four unit curriculum in 2014/15, which has been actively in the pilot process, for fine tuning and revision; prior to submission for publication through University of Kentucky Family and Consumer Sciences Extension publication process. The Metcalfe County FCS Agent has piloted it with freshmen and middle school eighth grade students, over the past four years. For the 2018/19 program year, 97
Author: Judith O'Bryan
Research shows that preparing and eating meals at home can have positive impact on families by strengthening family ties and leading to better physical and mental health. In an effort to encourage more families to make family mealtime a priority, Family & Consumer Science Agents in the Wilderness Trail Area organized and conducted a Wilderness Trail Area Holiday Cooking School focused on family meal preparation. 250 participants from the eight counties from the Wilderness Trail A
