The Hickman County Extension Service Nutrition Education Program Assistant along with the Family and Consumer Science Agent collaborated with Hickman County Board of Education and Hickman County Family Resource Center targeted parents of children infant through age five about better nutrition by improving their diet quality, food safety, resource management and increasing physical activity. 

Twelve families met for six sessions using the Healthy Choice curriculum with 100% of the families making an improvement in the nutritional quality of their diet. 

Of the graduated families, 55% consumed a diet of higher quality because they planned meals using My Plate, considered healthy choices, and used the Nutrition Facts label. 64% of families increased the number of days for physical activity, strength training and making changes in their daily routine. Families increased their food security by having enough to eat by meal planning or knowledge was also obtained as to where they may receive assistance from local resources such as food banks and the USDA commodity program. 54% of families demonstrated an improvement in safe food handling practices, 67% improvement was shown in food price comparison behavior. 50% of families showed an improvement of meals eaten at home vs meals eaten away from home. 

One mother stated, “My child always claimed she did not like fruit until I purchased it and offered it to her – she ate it and liked it!”