The COVID-19 pandemic caused a significant increase in the demand for emergency food boxes, as more families faced layoffs and cutbacks in Lawrence County. Lawrence County’s Expanded Food and Nutrition Education Program (EFNEP) Senior Assistant partnered with community food banks to provide nutrition information and healthy recipes to individuals and families receiving assistance from local food banks.  The food banks where information was distributed included God’s Food Pantry, Fallsburg Food Bank, and Blaine Food Bank. Sharing information and recipes from our Healthy Choices for Every Body curriculum on how to store and prepare the food received will cut back on waste when items can expire from families not knowing how to prepare them. The EFNEP Senior Assistant paired recipes and information with specific foods received from the food pantry. This was done in order to give families the tools needed to prepare nutritious meals with the resources provided to them.  

By partnering with the food banks, the EFNEP Senior Assistant was able to reach 1725 families throughout Lawrence County. Providing resources to help through these tough times and continuing to provide educational information in the future will insure a lasting impact for Lawrence County families.

Additionally, Lawrence County had a severe ice storm that resulted in power outages in February 2020, leaving some of Lawrence County families without electricity for up to 14 days. Unfortunately, flooding followed the ice storm prolonging power outages for some families. The EFNEP Senior Assistant reached out to Lawrence County Emergency Management, Blaine Food Bank, and Fallsburg Food Bank offering assistance in the form of educational materials on the topics of Food Safety and Flooding. The EFNEP Senior Assistant insured that this information was readily available throughout the Lawrence County’s state of emergency by distributing the information in food boxes. Information on Food Safety and Flooding was distributed to 425 families through this community partnership effort.