The Coronavirus pandemic has caused our program needs to shift toward online education to meet the requests of our clients. Even though the pandemic has caused us to change the way we offer programs it has not changed our will to teach our community. The horticulture agent and program assistant for Mason County modified programs to have them available through Facebook & Zoom and offers packets of information for those who cannot join online. Classes are offered once a week for adults and children. The topics are garden related and each class an activity or seeds that can be picked up outside the extension office. With the classes offered online, we have given away over 1000 seed packets to encourage people to follow our videos and start a garden.

           Through our online classes we have reached over 2000 people so far and have had an increase in phone calls with garden-related questions. While the pandemic will not last forever, it has opened our minds to offering programming online as we plan to continue to provide classes online in addition to our regular programming.