Rowan County SNAP-Ed Program partnered with Morehead State Upward Bound Program to offer nutrition classes during their Student Leadership Summit on April 2, 2022. Upward Bound goal was to prepare the students for living on their own when they enroll for classes at Morehead State University.  Upward Bound serves high school students from low-income families; and high school students from families in which neither parent holds a bachelor's degree. The goal of Upward Bound is to increase the rate at which participants complete secondary education and enroll in and graduate from institutions of postsecondary education. Healthy eating habits, exercise and food security all help to increase the rate of graduation from postsecondary education according to the National Institute of Health.

Classes offered by SNAP-Ed were from the Healthy Choices from Everybody Curriculum. “Know your Limits on Fats, Sugar and Sodium and MyPlate for Everybody” was combined into one class, Meal Planning and Food Safety was second class offered, and the 3^rd was Reading Nutrition Labels and Budgeting. The importance of staying activity was stressed in all three classes. Class size was limited to 15 to 20 students, no pretest or posttest was done as not all students attended all 3 lessons, nor would SNAP-Ed have the opportunity to complete the seven lessons of “Healthy Choices for Everybody” required for graduates. The students were not considered adults either as most were under the age of 18 years of age, but these were the lessons requested by the Upward Bound Program.

The curriculum was very well received by the student. Comments were made by several students that they would like to attend SNAP-Ed programming once they are enrolled in Morehead State University. Since most of the students were from low income families they shared some of the things their families do to extend their food supply such as buying in bulk, gardening and preserving foods which are all included in the lessons taught. 

https://www2.ed.gov/programs/trioupbound/index.html

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5746694/Associations between Dietary Intake and Academic Achievement in College Students: A Systematic Review