In 2020, 41% of Knott County’s adult population was considered obese and 40% were considered physically inactive. Evidence shows regular physical activity and healthy eating habits help people achieve and maintain good health while reducing the risk of chronic disease.

 The Knott County Health and Wellness Center serves adults in Knott County with intellectual disabilities. The director of the center contacted the Nutrition Education Program assistant and ask for nutrition related classes. They also asked for help getting the adults to do some type of physical activity. The center had raised garden beds that had not been used in years. The NEP assistant saw this as an opportunity to not only get the participants to be physically active by preparing the beds for vegetation, but the harvest from the garden would help the participants with food insecurities by providing fresh vegetables they could take home and prepare for themselves.

The NEP assistant taught Healthy Choices for Everybody curriculum consisting of 7 lessons covering a wide variety of topics; Food Safety, Eating Better on a Budget, Planning Meals etc. The assistant also lead the Victory Garden project with this group, promoting physical activity while working in the raised garden beds. The group cleaned up all the debris in the garden and pulled out all the weeds. With help from the Agriculture Agent, the beds were tilled and ready for planting. The NEP program assistant partnered with the Hindman Settlement School whom provided onion, tomato, cucumber, and pepper plants for the project. The Knott County Agriculture Agent also provided bean and melon seeds. The participants enjoyed planting the garden and caring for it while it grew. One participant said it brought back good memories, reminding him of his childhood when he would help his grandfather in the garden. Another participant stated she couldn’t wait to harvest the cucumbers and tomatoes.

As a result of the victory garden project combined with the Healthy Choices classes, 100% of the 13 participants showed improvement in one or more diet quality indicators such as eating more red and orange vegetables and eating more vegetables in general. Food resource management improved by 92% with participants taking home the harvest and preparing vegetables at home. Physical activity amongst the group also saw improvement with 77% of participants exercising for at least 30 minutes daily.