An estimated 20% of adults in the United States have tried at least one meal kit delivery service. With the demand for convenience in our society, meal kits seem to be the answer for grocery shopping, meal planning, and meal preparation. For those who have not tried meal kits, consumers are interested in learning about how meal kits work and whether or not they are worth the investment for preparing and consuming more meals at home.

In response to this, the Mercer County Extension Agent for Family & Consumer Sciences (FCS) delivered the workshop “Meal Kits: Are They Worth It?” for eight counties across central Kentucky. Emphasis was placed on understanding the benefits and drawbacks of incorporating meal kits into lifestyle and financial goals. Seventy-four Kentucky Extension Homemakers participated in the workshop.

Prior to the program, only 14% of participants ranked their ability to identify benefits of incorporating meal kits into their lifestyle as “good” or “excellent”. Similarly, approximately 18% felt “good” or “excellent” about identifying the drawbacks of using meal kits. After the program, 84% felt “good” or “excellent” about identifying benefits and 85% felt “good” or “excellent” about identifying drawbacks of using meal kits. There was an increase from 15% to 84% from pre to post for “good” or “excellent” understanding for how meal kits fit into an individual’s lifestyle and financial goals. Overall, 75% of participants expressed after the program they would use the information learned to examine the amount of money they currently spend on food within their home.

In regards to the program and delivery, 87% of participants agreed to some degree the subject matter was timely and 92% agreed the information was practical. Finally, 100% of participants thought overall this was a very educational program.

Additionally, the FCS Agent recorded a concise video of the workshop to share on social media for those who were unable to attend the in-person opportunities.  The video was posted February 7, 2020 and Facebook reported a reach of 1,134 people as of July 15, 2020.  While exposing clientele to our educational information is important, it is always significantly more impactful when they engage with our resources – 152 people watched, reacted to, or shared this information on their own social media account.  This number is greater than the number of individuals the FCS Agent would have been able to educate in a traditional face-to-face format.  An observable increase in views occurred during the month of April and could be attributed to the continuance of Novel Corona Virus Pandemic conditions.