According to Kentucky Health Facts, 72% of Letcher County residents are overweight with 38% being obese and only 18% consume 5 or more fruits and vegetables per day.  Obese individuals are at higher risk for many chronic health conditions such as diabetes, heart disease and cancers.  

The Letcher County Cooperative Extension Service offered a six week Healthy Cooking School at two local libraries to encourage participants to prepare healthy home cooked meals.  There were hands on activities completed during each session in which they prepared a recipe as well as learning healthy weight tips from Weight the Reality Series.

Nineteen adults from various backgrounds (parents of school age children, grandparents and single individuals) participated in one or more of the six sessions.  During the sessions, participants:

• Learned the science of food preparation, understanding the need to measure dry and liquid ingredients correctly (i.e. baking lesson) 69%

• Adapted food preparation tasks to save time

• Practiced proper knife skills, demonstrated food safety

• Prepared fruits and vegetables, expanding the variety of foods they know how to prepare and added to their diet (72%)

• Expressed intention of practicing healthy weight tip (31%)