A new group of women that belong to a Jefferson County church network were having problems trying to teach their kids to eat more vegetables and were perplexed by the amount of junk food that their kids were demanding from them. They joined the Healthy Choices for Every Body program led by the Nutrition Education Program Assistant with the University of Kentucky’s Cooperative Extension Service and realized that they were the ones that needed to start the change by replacing going out to eat several times a week with cooking at home and trying new recipes that included a variety of colors and flavors in order to control their food budget.

The first changes they noticed in their kids’ preferences were that they wanted to try new vegetables and fruits that used to be a problem for them. After trying with a mix of other flavors, they seemed to like it! The group kept learning new ways to improve their food habits and kept bringing new friends and relatives to the program, making it easier for them to learn together. The group demonstrated a 73% improvement in their consumption of dark leafy green and a 91% improvement in their consumption of red and orange vegetables, in addition to bringing those little changes to their family and their friends.