Bath County is made up of 100 % rural communities, and for 2023 was ranked amongst the least healthy counties within the state ranking 94 out of 120. Of the population, 19% report not having a reliable food source, with the closest large grocery outlet being located 20-30 minutes away. About 23% of the population are in poor health with 39% of adults considered obese. 

Children need daily fruits and vegetables to support healthy growth. Yet, in 2021, National Survey of Children's Health shows that nearly 1 out of every 2 children aged 1-5 years old who live in Kentucky do not eat a fruit and/or vegetable every day. Additional research has found that families that share meals together have better academic performance, higher self-esteem, a greater sense of resilience, lower risk of teen pregnancy, lower risk of developing depressing, lower rate of obesity and lower risk of developing an eating disorder. 

Within the state of Kentucky, Regional Prevention Centers across the state promote a newsletter called The Dinner Table Project, encouraging families to eat together to foster better relationships. The Family Dinner Night was a collaborative effort of the Bath County FCS, FRYSC, and the regional Prevention Center for the county to bring The Dinner Table Project to life. The programs objectives were to encourage family mealtimes and learn tips for meal planning.  The program started out with a meal prepared for the families and then the preparation demonstrated by the FCS agent. Then the agent proceeded to present information on the benefits of families eating together and how to make mealtime more efficient by meal planning/prepping. While families continued to enjoy their meals, one of the FRYCS read a book to the group about self-esteem. After the meal, families were able to partake in two craft activities, which included coloring and writing encouraging words on rocks and decorating mini flowerpots, then planting seeds to take home to grow. As the program ended, each family was gifted crock pots for easy meal preparations, boards games to encourage family game nights, along with a goodie bag with kitchen utensils and educational resources. An educational resource that the Prevention Center provided was conversation boxes, the boxes were displayed on the tables for the families. Conversation boxes encourage unplugged meals, by encouraging individuals to place their phones in the box while using the fun conversation starters that are located on the box to easily connect with one another. 

The Family Dinner Night marketing materials were shared with all families with children in k-8^th grade in the county. As a result of the program, 100% said they learned the importance of eating meals together, learned how to use MyPlate to create a balanced meal, and felt more confident in meal planning to help reduce grocery shopping cost. Of the participants, 100% increased their meals prepared at home by three meals.