According to the Centers for Disease Control, the prevalence of obesity is 41.0% among older adults aged 60 and older. Obesity is common, serious, and costly. Approximately 72.5 million U.S. adults are obese. Obesity is a factor contributing to several leading causes of death, including heart disease, stroke, diabetes, and some types of cancer. 

Through a collaboration between the Owsley County Extension service and the Owsley County commodities program nutrition lessons are provided to seniors who qualify for the commodities program.  During the course of the year a curriculum titled “Healthy Choices for Everybody”.  Seniors are taught a series of lessons that range from nutrition, meal planning, reading labels and also budgeting as well as food safety.  

During the lessons, participants were able to sample recipes, participate in food preparation as well as doing other hands on activities.  Participants improved their diet quality by seventy one percent and improved their food safety behavior as well as food resource management by eighty one percent.  One participant even stated, “I feel better about going to the grocery store now that I know the right foods to purchase and also how to better budget my money for the month.”