Eating more fruits and vegetables is a critical behavior for health promotion and disease prevention. Despite the importance of eating more produce, it is also one of the most difficult eating behaviors to change. It has been reported that cooking more meals at home is related to increased fruit and vegetable consumption. 

A social marketing program to promote healthy, home-cooked family meals, Cook Together, Eat Together, was offered virtually by the Graves County Cooperative Extension Service. This program was adapted by the Family and Consumer Sciences (FCS) Agent from its intended in-person format to a virtual format to provide critical information during COVID-19 and in response to community members expressing interest in preparing meals at home. 

Participants were invited to join a closed Facebook group through the Graves County Cooperative Extension Facebook page. It was also promoted in the FCS and KEHA monthly newsletters. Community-wide networking was also successful in recruiting participants. By the end of the program, 57 individuals participated with ages ranging from 20-70 years old. 

For five weeks, participants were directly engaged with the content. Videos were posted demonstrating recipe preparation and the specific recipe was shared from the curriculum. On average, over half of the group members were engaged with each of the weekly postings. Additional supporting resources were shared and participants were linked to existing Nutrition Education Program resources like the PlanEatMove website. After the five-week program, the FCS Agent plans to continue sharing Plate It Up! Kentucky Proud recipe videos and digital recipe cards. 

Due to the rapid response of the FCS Agent to provide timely material to the community, thorough pre and post evaluations are unavailable. Although outcome data is not available at this time, the FCS Agent was successful in reaching a large audience in a new capacity. This novel approach to a packaged program was successful in linking new and existing Extension clientele to various resources when in-person classes and workshops were restricted.