Currently 12.8% of Kentuckians and 21% of Children in Grant County live in poverty.  Many of these families receive assistance from local food pantries in addition to SNAP benefits.  The Grant County Nutrition Education program and the Grant County Homeschool Group collaborated to present a seven weeklong Cook Together Eat Together program.  The classes averaged 8 families with 7 completing the series.  The Cook Together Eat Together program was used for a 7-week series of classes.  Families cooked a recipe together each week.  They obtained skills such as meal planning, knife skills, measuring, food safety, handwashing, using meat thermometers, increasing physical activity, and adding more fruits and vegetables to their diets.  Currently, 34% of Grant County residents do not exercise and only 8.3% meet daily recommendations for fruit consumption and only 6.3% meet daily vegetable consumption recommendations.  

By the end of the program, 100% of the families exercised 30 minutes a week or more and 100% improved their diet quality.  Additionally, 86% increased eating beans, peas, as well as red, orange, and dark green vegetables. One parent stated, “the kids are helping me cook and all of them are trying more vegetables.”  Families improved on using a written weekly or monthly food spending plan, planning meals more often and checking sales on food before shopping by 57%.  One participant stated that “We are planning meals as a family.  The kids are each planning a meal each week.”  Families were also incorporating cooking into their home school routine.  One mom stated, “We are using recipe and measurements to learn about fractions.”