Approximately One billion people live with a mental disorder. In 2020 mental illness was listed as the highest of all diseases and mental disorders. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), the Covid-19 pandemic has interrupted the mental health services available to the public.

Cooking can be beneficial for a persons mental health.  Cooking nutritious meals at home can be inspiring, pleasurable, therapeutic, and can also increase ones self esteem. 

In Spring of 2021 The University of Kentucky's Nutrition Education Program partnered with Brighton Women's Recovery Center in Florence Kentucky to conduct a 7 part multi-nutrition series called Making Healthy Choices for EveryBody. Brighton Center is a 100 bed inhouse long-term facility that helps ladies struggling with chronic substance abuse and addiction. Twelve female adults who were enrolled in the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) participated in the 7 week series. The participants meet weekly via Zoom to learn various lessons on nutrition and health, as-well-as numerous ways to create healthy, low cost, delicious meals at home. Upon completion of the program, the participants were given a Healthy Recipes Cook Book filled with low cost recipes, along with various small kitchen gadgets to use in conjunction with the recipes provided.

At the beginning of the series a mask mandate was in place in Kentucky. The female residents wore masks and social distanced, even during the nutrition zoom series. In June 2021 Kentucky’s mask mandated ended and participants no longer had to abide by the mask restriction. They attended the Nutrition Zoom series without a mask on. The Boone County Extensions Nutrition Assistant noticed significant behavior and attitude changes in the participants in class. Participants were more active in class, providing feedback in lessons and asking more and more questions. Many smiling faces were   observed. The ladies requested additional recipes like fish tacos, to be added to the Recipe Cookbook. The majority of the class said they were looking forward to creating these recipes when they returned home. The ladies were very appreciative and happy to receive all the information from this class. 

Healthy Choices for EveryBody was successful in helping the ladies of Brighton Center.  Statistical data from Web-Based Nutrition Education Evaluation and Reporting System (WebNEERS) showed 100% of participants has shown improvements in one or more diet quality markers. These ladies made positive changes in their nutrition habits and learned affordable ways to eat a healthy lifestyle.