Different

Trigg County in 2018 reported 6,956 limited resource residents participating in nutrition education lessons. March 2020 when COVID-19 reached this rural community, 100% (one-hundred percent) of that population was joined by another 50% (fifty percent) of the county’s residents needing healthy, nutritious foods. Having connections with the local Helping Hands Food Bank, the SNAP-Ed Assistant provided COVID-19 materials to the Bank for distribution to limited resource families. Inquiring of commodities being given to the residents, the Assistant pulled program recipes that made use of the foods. All the materials were stuffed into the boxes at the pick-up location.

A Bank volunteer reported that in March 2020 one hundred (100) families were served. April 2020 they served 350 (three hundred and fifty) families. One day alone there was sixty-nine (69) cars that came through the pick-up line. On a non-COVID-19 day, they usually serve only ten (10) to twenty (20) families.

Working since COVID-19 is challenging and different.

Relissa Torian

Nutrition Education Program

SNAP-Ed Assistant, Trigg County