Cumberland County is a small rural community population approx seven thousand residents .

People are Limited to seven dine in restaurants  ,five gas stations with food, three take  out BBQ food venues and only two supermarkets sell fresh produce. However they do have two Farmers markets.Yet people still preferred buying at take outs or eating at the restaurants to buying fresh from the markets and cooking at home. Many have health issues but did not equate this to their eating patterns or diets.

 After surveying the community members for the nutrition programs that most did not buy fresh produce from the supermarkets as they sighted “too expensive” or” the  food did not keep It was coming from other countries it was already molding” or” they did not know how to prepare or cook the food” 

The Cumberland County Extension staff along with our intern came up with a "Cooking with Farmers Market Program" where we advertised for youth to come a do a cooking program with the FCS agent and the intern and their parents and any other interested adults did the nutrition program with the NEP Assistant both groups learnt about fruits and vegetables  and how they benefitted the body. 

This program taught families how to make the best buys on fresh produce when it was in season and how to use it so that it was beneficial to their health. secondly the program aimed to get the vendors from the farmers market to assist their clients in making smart choices and getting the vendors to accommodate the family voucher system sponsored by the Health Coalition

The programs where held at the extension office on the same day that the farmers market was at the extension office so then the participants could go and buy fresh produce with their family vouchers and they could also talk to the vendors and Ag agent about how the produce was grown and how to use it. Y

Participant testimonies: one said” they had learned about new fruit and vegetables that they had never tried”.” It tastes great so fresh totally different to the supermarket produce”. Many participated in other programs after this one such as the food preservation class and master gardeners class etc. Youth felt they had an input into food choices in their meals prepared at home.