Family and Consumer Sciences Extension encourages families to make proactive choices to improve individual health and well-being, whether choosing a low fat, nutritious diet, increasing health literacy for chronic disease prevention, or participating in regular physical activity. The Kentucky Nutrition Education Program (KYNEP) encompass two separate USDA programs: The Expanded Food and Nutrition Education Program (EFNEP), and the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP-Ed). Both programs are administered by the University of Kentucky Cooperative Extension Service, and target low income families and individuals with nutrition education.  The goals of both are to educate limited resource families with young children and SNAP eligible individuals to plan nutritious meals on a limited budget, acquire safe food handling practices, improve food preparation skills and change behavior necessary to have a healthy lifestyle. 

Goals:

• Increase access to fruits and vegetables.
• Apply skills of food resource management, food safety, and food preparation to afford healthy, nutritious food choices

The FCS Agent started Lunch and Learn many years ago and continues to offer this free program each month. This program is based on the Food and Nutrition calendar which NEP creates each year. This program is a cooking and nutrition program that uses the monthly recipe to teach cooking skills, food safety in the kitchen, good nutrition practices, increase use of fruits and vegetables, reduce sodium and sugar intake and increase physical activity. The FCS Agent either prepares the recipe to sample or leads the group in a hands on cooking session.

Participants receive a copy of the calendar which has recipes for the whole year. All participants at this stage in the program are repeat attendees. The program took a small break during the pandemic but started back up in 2023 with lots of former lunch and learners present. All participants have reported using one or more recipes from the calendar in their weekly menu planning routines.