Many families struggle each year with their finances and back to school season can be a real hardship for families that are barely managing to pay their bills.  In order to help these families First Baptist Church of London started a “free-for-all.”  For four hours on a Sunday afternoon and evening, families were invited to the church to take advantage of free school supplies, free haircuts, free dental care and more.  The Family and Consumer Sciences Agent was contacted and asked to provide educational programming for these families.  Families were required to attend the educational classes in order to receive the free items.  The Laurel County Family & Consumer Sciences Agent along with the EFNEP Assistant and SNAP Assistant provided programming on Food Safety, the Importance of Hand Washing and Where Does my Money Go.  Over 200 participants attended our programming.  

In the Importance of Hand Washing class participants increased their knowledge by 44% when asked how long they should wash their hands.  When asked which is better? soap or sanitizer 40% of the participants increased their knowledge.

In the Where Does my Money Go class 79% of participants stated that they had learned something about money and savings and 81% planned to start a savings after attending the class.  Four months after the program, 4 participants entered the piggy bank challenge contest. Participants brought back their piggy bank and shared with us how much they had been able to save.  There was a total of $42.26 with an average savings of $10 per person.

82% of the Food Safety class participants stated that they learned something.  When asked what they had learned, participants listed the following:

• When to refrigerate leftovers

• The proper internal temperature when cooking hamburger

• How to sanitize

• How to use a meat thermometer

• how you can become sick from unsafe food

• and do not cross contaminate