In March 2020, a global pandemic changed how families interact, how businesses operate, how students attended classes and how basic needs were purchased.  Basically, Covid-19 changed everything.

“The University of Kentucky Cooperative Extension Service provides practical education you can trust to help people, businesses, and communities solve problems, develop skills, and build a better future”.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                            The global pandemic didn’t change what we do, it changed how we carry out our mission statement.

The Webster County Extension Agent for Agriculture and Natural Resources began using Facebook as a platform for reaching out to clientele while staying  healthy at home remotely working.  During the global pandemic, food security has been a concern for many families.  As a result, there has been an increase in families growing their own gardens.  In an effort to help new and experienced gardeners, there was a need to push research-based, reliable information to the public in a safe manner.  “Growing your own garden:  Learning from a distance” program  kicked-off on April 8^th, 2020 with “Grab & Go garden bags” filled with University of Kentucky gardening publications, garden calendar and vegetable seed packets.  Twenty bags were filled and picked up in less than 24 hours.  The second part of the program is social media based.   Every Monday, starting April 20^th, “Timely Tips: Growing your own garden” is posted on the Webster County Cooperative Extension Agriculture and Natural Resources Facebook page.  The tips are research-based information from University of Kentucky, College of Agriculture, Food and Environment publications.   Timely tips are primarily production related, but also contain food preservation tips and promoting KY Proud Plate it Up recipes.  As of June 29^th, 2020, the “reach” according to Facebook was two thousand eighty-two.  Clientele has reached out to the Cooperative Extension agent for more information as a direct result of the “Growing your own garden” program.  The Webster County Cooperative Extension Agriculture and Natural Resources page has increased had a fifty-three percent increase in the number of page followers since the program began.  This program will continue through the gardening season and after the pandemic is over.