According to Feeding America 1 in 7 Barren County Residents are food insecure, meaning they likely do not know where their next meal will come from. To alleviate issues with the food insecurity in Barren County, Feeding America has two Barren County TEFAP (The Emergency Food Assistance Program) distributions monthly.

The Barren County Cooperative Extension Service SNAP-Ed (Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program Education) assistant began working with both Barren County Feeding America TEFAP Distributions at River Lake Church and Cave City Convention Center. The SNAP-Ed assistant began providing Kentucky Nutrition Education Program resources to distribution recipients. The SNAP-Ed Assistant partnered with one of Barren County’s TEFAP Coordinators to match their monthly order to be able to pull recipes that corresponding with the monthly TEFAP commodities for 7,234 families from January to September 2021.

The corresponding recipes have been helpful to families to understand how to properly utilize commodities received from distributions. One recipient has said “the recipes are helpful in making meals with the box of food I pick up once a month at the convention center, a favorite has been the red beans & rice”