According to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Feeding America, Kentucky and Logan County have a significant number of children and adolescents that fall under the classification of overweight or obese (16.1% overweight and 20.0% obese adolescents and 16% overweight and 15.9% obese children ages 2-5 years).  There is also a large percentage of youth that do not eat the recommended number of fruits and vegetables daily (49.3% at vegetables less than 1 time a day and 51.7% ate fruits less than 1 time a day according to 2016-2017 CDC data).   In addition to this data, there is also a significant number of individuals in Kentucky and Logan County that are considered to have food insecurity (14.4% or 1 in 7 of Kentucky individuals struggle with hunger and 17.2% or 1 in 5 children in Logan County struggle with hunger according to Feeding America 2019 data).  Food insecurity refers to USDA’s measure of lack of access, at times, to enough food for an active, healthy life for all household members and limited or uncertain availability of nutritionally adequate foods.   The Logan County Extension Service’s Extension Agents for Family and Consumer Sciences, 4-H Youth Development, Agriculture and Natural Resources and SNAP Assistant partnered together to offer the families of Logan County the Family Fun Day at the Farmer’s Market to bring nutrition education and access to nutritional, local foods to those families with children.  The program consisted of recipe sampling, fruit and vegetable craft activities, a fruit and vegetable bingo game, a tour of the farmer’s market to help understand where their food is being raised and providing each child dollars to spend at the farmer’s market to purchase fresh produce.

A total of 40 adults and 34 children attended the Family Fun Day at the Farmer’s Market program.  Program evaluation data included the following results:

77% of children had previously been to the Farmer’s Market

65% of children indicated they ate fruits and vegetable everyday

91% of children were able to name fruits and vegetables they saw at the Farmer’s Market

74% of children named produce items that they wanted to purchase using their Farmer’s Market dollars 

Some of the fruits and vegetables that children named that they were excited to try were eggplant, apples, carrots and tomatoes.

In addition to this data, several of the Farmer’s Market vendors were also positively impacted by this program.  Four vendors redeemed $198 in Farmer’s Market Bucks used by the children.