Pumpkin Day Success Story

Children living in Breathitt and surrounding counties served by UK’s Robinson Center (RCARS) rank at the absolute bottom of the Robert Woods Johnson County Health Rankings for overall health outcomes. (Breathitt #120, Wolfe #119, Owsley #118, Leslie #117, Perry #116, Lee #113 2018 data). The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention list childhood obesity as a contributing factor to many health issues. The CDC states that one way to combat childhood obesity is to consume a diet high in vegetables and fruits.  RCARS and Cooperative Extension partnered with schools and community (Kentucky River Medical Center, Breathitt County Public Health Department, Breathitt County Public Library and others) to host a regional Farm to Preschool/School event at no cost to students aged 3 – 6. 2018 Pumpkin Days provided many educational stations that allowed students and their families an opportunity to discover how pumpkins grow as well as opportunities to sample healthy recipes prepared with pumpkin, such as ‘chocolate pumpkin muffins’. 

The event culminated with students experiencing agriculture first hand as they walked into a pumpkin patch and selected their very own pumpkin. Over the span of 2 days, 925 youth and 432 teachers and family members experienced this popular fall vegetable from seed to field to fork, at educational stations staffed by 81 employees and community partners. Of the teachers that completed post event surveys, over 50% stated that they connected the Pumpkin Day event to other activities in their classroom, with health, agriculture, and community. Teachers also reported that 71% of their students sampled the healthy foods made with pumpkin. While there is no data available to determine if those students continued to include healthy vegetables in their diets, the event does have a lasting impact on the students. High school agriculture students volunteered to help prep the pumpkin patch for the young visitors, and a majority of the group recalled that they had participated in the event years before.