While teaching Meal Planning and Food Safety at a neighborhood community center adult group, one participant was concerned that,” it’s not easy preparing healthy meals for your family when you don’t have the time.” With that in mind the Kenton County Cooperative Extension Nutrition Education Program (NEP) Assistant taught how meal planning not only saves time and money at the grocery store, it also provides variety to family meals. The NEP Assistant also taught how meal planning helps you think about safe food practices, such as cross-contamination, thawing and storing food.

Participants were surprised by how much time can be saved by planning meals ahead of time. According to data from a national reporting system at the end of the seven lesson series 89% of participants showed improvement in planning meals, and 78% of participants showed improvement in one or more food safety practices. Not only did the 22 participants save time and money by meal planning, they also showed improvement in making healthier options when preparing meals for their families.