Accessing healthcare services is critical to being healthy but in rural western Kentucky residents face a variety of access barriers. Ideally, rural residents should be able to have many simple medical services such as primary care, dental care, behavioral health, emergency care, and public health services readily but they do not. According to Healthy People 2020, access to healthcare is important for: overall physical, social, and mental health status, prevention of disease, detection and treatment of illnesses, quality of life, preventable death, and Life expectancy

The Family and Consumer Sciences Agent in Fulton County has been in charge of the Banana Festival Health Fair for the past five years. Since 2015 there has been a 42% increase in participants and 79% in community medical booth partners.

Throughout the 2 hour event, participants visited various booths where they could get health screenings for their eyes, cholesterol, blood pressure, flu shots and blood oxygen, at no cost. Participants received information on various health topics, including cancer prevention, diabetes, prescription safety, mental health, health insurance, smoking cessation and physical fitness.

The Editor of the local newspaper has stated “Having a first hand account of the progression, and transformation of the Banana Festival Health Fair, through coverage for the newspaper, it has been my observation that often, festival events may lose public interest. On the contrary, the Health Fair has grown from a few displays in our community center, to a gymnasium full of stations offering information, demonstrations, products and so much more. It has been consistently well attended, offering a multitude of resources, and a definite plus for our area, especially in light of losing our local hospital, clinics and specialty healthcare providers.”