In October of 2021, the Nelson County Cooperative Extension office was approached by Feeding America and the Nelson County Chamber of Commerce to provide a location for an after hour food distribution targeting Hispanic populations. According to Feeding America, "Latinos were 2.5 times more likely to experience food insecurity than white individuals. Latino children were more than twice as likely to live in food-insecure households as white children" during the pandemic.  The Nelson County Extension office served as the location and provided health and nutrition resources to to the around 70 initial families that attended.  Of those families, only 4 where Latino.  

When confirming the next date with Feeding America, Danielle Hagler, Nelson County Cooperative Extension Agent for 4-H Youth Development, learned that the Latino outreach coordinator was no longer in that position.  They asked if the office would like to continue serving as a host site for distribution.   Although the targeted audience numbers were low, Danielle and other volunteers noted that, because of the hours, 4:30-6:30,  the distribution was incredibly successful at getting food to the working food insecure.  In Nelson County the majority of food related aid is available during normal business hours, when many families are unavailable to access those resources. 

Danielle now works with Feeding America to schedule the date, recruits volunteers from Chamber membership and works directly with the 4-H helping hands club to ensure enough volunteers are present.  Before the event, the information is shared on social media and with over 150 community partners.  

Efforts to reach Latino audiences have included, utilizing translated flyers delivered directly to business and locations with Latino staff, ensuring that translators are on site for each distribution (the Sisters of Charity of Nazareth have been reliable partners for this),direct delivery to some families,  providing food aid Latino recipients with culturally appropriate food and nutrition education resources in Spanish Langue versions. Although, this originally targeted community remains a small percentage of our total food distribution, the numbers have increased to on average about 15 families.  Many of the Latino families return each month, bring an additional families with them or take additional bags to families who live near them.  

In cooperation with The Nelson County Chamber of Commerce and the Nelson County 4-H Helping Hands Club, the local after hours food distribution has become a monthly asset to our community.  Each month the number of families served has increased. In June of 2022, over 200 families received food assistance, healthy recipes, nutrition education resources and resources about services available in our community. Over 100 families were turned away due to the increased need in the community, so more food was ordered for subsequent distributions. In March, families with someone in their household celebrating a birthday, also received birthday party boxes that were made by 4-Hers that included cake and decorations. The success of this food distribution is definitely worth celebrating.

Feeding America and the Nelson County Cooperative Extension office meet with the local Bread for Life Food Pantry in June to discuss the possibility of offering a more permanent solution.  In September, the distribution will move to the pantry as an after hours distribution, but will allow Feeding America to have their staff help other communities.  The food pantry will order and store the food which will still serve the targeted populations.  

With fuel prices steadily increasing, many  members of the Nelson County community have become newly nutrition insecure,. As a result, Danielle Hagler, now the Nelson County family Consumer Science Agent also scheduled a communitywide Hunger in Kentucky training to educate the public of this emerging need and to assist in moving the community to action.