Health disease is a problem for the State of Kentucky. There is a high amount of health-related diseases in America. In Fayette County, the EFNEP program has been a factor in helping families to learn about nutrition education, food safety, food budget, and food and safety techniques to educate and change food pattern behaviors to low-income families with children in the home. Many of the parents are eating high processed, high sodium, and high sugar food related foods and not enough healthy foods. Eating foods that are high sodium, sugar, and fat foods can cause diabetes, heart disease, stroke, and cancer. The important steps to prevent these diseases are nutrition and daily exercise.

To address the issue, Fayette County EFNEP assistants provides nutrition education, food safety, food budget, and food and safety techniques to educate and change food pattern behaviors to low-income families with children in the home. One of the classes in the EFNEP program was a group of parents who attended classes from September 2017 to November 2017. Some of the class lessons discussed in the EFNEP series were on the nutritional benefits of fruits, vegetables, and lean protein, and dairy and non-dairy calcium fortified alternatives, differences between refined and whole grains, healthy fats, and healthy fast food alternatives.

At the beginning of the class series, there were 16 participants. Nine of the 16 adult clients graduated. The participants each filled out a pre and post-survey. Several of the participants who graduated increased the number of times a day they eat vegetables based on the post-test results from the survey. Research shows that eating a daily amount of fruits and vegetables can reduce the chances of health-related diseases. The EFNEP program is effective in providing the participants the benefits of healthy eating. The EFNEP program will continue to provide nutrition education on the five food groups on fruits, vegetables, whole grains, dairy, lean proteins, sodium reduction, sugar alternatives, and healthy fats.