The Campbell County Nutrition Education Program paraprofessional partnered with the Brighton Center to work with families who utilize their on-site food pantry. The focus was to use the Healthy Choices for Every Body program to find healthy recipes to use the food provided by the panty. Diet quality was definitely an issue with this group with five out of seven people reporting eating fast food on the first day of the program in spite of having concerns with various health issues including high blood pressure and diabetes. When asked how many calories participants thought should be consumed in a day, one person responded “99” when a minimum of 1,500 calories are recommended for most people. There was definitely work to be done. 

Over the course of the six week series, participants shared small victories such as trying new healthy recipes they had learned how to prepare in class, reading food labels, comparing prices at the grocery and using what they had on hand to prepare easy meals at home. They were amazed that simple four or five ingredient recipes using ingredients that they took home from the food pantry could be so fast and taste so good. 

According to beginning and exit data from a national reporting system, 100% of participants experienced an improvement in food-related practices, especially eating more vegetables and drinking less soda. All of them also made some change in improving the management of the resources they have. Best of all, by the end of the program these ladies felt like they now had tools to help them continue to make changes to improve their physical and financial health.