Thousands of schools have closed their doors in March  due to COVID-19 leaving many parents juggling working remotely, homeschooling their children, as well as everyday house hold chores.  These challenges parents are facing at home are unprecedented. Because of the COVID-19, day camps throughout were cancelled leaving parents who were used to dropping off their children unsure of what to do and how to entertain their children. 4-H Grab and Go Bags were developed to help fill that void. Gallatin County 4-H has reached children we normally do not reach in the summer with this outreach. 1,000 Easter bag were put together and delivered to the school lunch program. 

 This summer, between 50-100 bags have been given out each week since March for ages 5 and up. Each week, bags focused on a specific topic related to outdoor activities, gardening, cooking, physical activities, science projects and arts/crafts. For example, we have introduced or reintroduced several games that children used to play such as hop scotch, water games, jacks, and marbles. Science projects included balloon cars, slime, and rockets. Vegetable seed planting and flowers for Mother’s Day were part of the gardening section. Arts and crafts included sun catchers, eatable marshmallow slime, and blow paint art. Cooking included icing sugar cookies, granola bars, ice cream in a bag, and cake in a mug.

Each week the new grab and go bag information is posted to our Facebook page. Parents, grandparents, aunts/uncles and even neighbors pick up the bags for the children. Parents and children alike are enjoying the surprise each week. They never know what is going to be in their bag.