The Center for Disease Control (CDC) reports that adults diagnosed with various developmental and intellectual disabilities are more likely to deal with co-morbidities such as obesity, smoking, heart disease and diabetes. In an effort to address these health concerns the Grayson County Nutrition Education Program Assistant partnered with CommuniCare of Leitchfield, KY to provide nutrition education classes to this specific audience. The Healthy Choices for Every Body Curriculum was utilized to teach eleven adult participants during July – August 2021. Educational lessons focused on topics such as learning to eat healthier on a budget, becoming more physically active, increasing the consumption of fruits and vegetables, food safety and more.  

The group showed significant improvement in knowledge gained and behavior changes as a result of completing the educational program. Pre and post evaluation results show sixty percent (60%) of participants increased their daily consumption of fruit and eighty percent (80%) began comparing food prices before purchasing food items. In addition, one hundred percent (100%) of the participants stated they began making small changes to become more physically active, and one hundred percent (100%) of the individuals learned not to thaw frozen foods at room temperature. 

These positive evaluation results and behavior changes indicate the partnership and educational program was a success.