The COVID-19 pandemic took its toll on so many groups of people, with the Garrard County schools being no exception. In 2020, after the initial start of COVID, the Garrard County schools completely shut down, shifting students to virtual and hybrid learning. With this shift in learning, and the schools not allowing any visitors or community partners once they opened again, 1,154 students in the Garrard County school system were unreachable for three years. 

With the start of the 2023-2024 school, the Garrard County Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP-Ed) Assistant used persistence and determination to regain access to the schools to provide programming! She worked with different teachers to set up a schedule to rotate programming throughout multiple classrooms. The program assistant will be providing nutrition and overall healthy lifestyle education to over 120 students this school year. After three years of not being able to work with youth in the school system, the program assistant is overjoyed to be back in action with the school aged youth audiences of Garrard County!