Head Start began in 1965 as a program to fight poverty for children 3 and 4 years old. To be eligible to attend Head Start or Early Head Start a family must, typically, fall under 100% of the federal poverty limit.  In Clinton County, the Lake Cumberland Head Start services a total of 20 families per school year.  To help these families better understand their nutritional needs, the Clinton County Nutrition Education Program Assistant Senior partnered with Lake Cumberland Head Start Program to offer nutrition classes to the parents of the students they serve.   Classes were held monthly and focused on a variety of skills relating to nutrition.  Utilizing the Healthy Choices for Everybody curriculum, some of the things covered included food resource management, food safety, meal planning, budgeting and the importance of breakfast.   This program was presented to a total of 5 consistent families.  There were other families that dropped in for a lesson or two but did not get to participate in all the lessons.  

Of the 5 consistent families, 100% of participants started cooking more dinners at home.  They also increased their fruit and vegetable consumption and focused more on the different colors of vegetables, mainly dark greens and red and orange vegetables to maximize nutritional benefits.   80% of participants utilized food safety measures like hand washing and properly thawing frozen foods as recommended.   100% of participants started using meat thermometers more often.  Finally all of the participants began using grocery lists and checking sales prices to help stretch their food budgets.  One mom shared, “I have been running out food stamp dollars for months now and couldn’t figure out why.  Now I see it’s because I wasn’t planning things out.  My food stamps go a lot further when I plan things out.”