According to 2018 County Health Rankings and Roadmap, Child Poverty in Martin County was 44% in comparison to 22% statewide in Kentucky. With 23% of children in Martin County being raised in single parent households, education for parents in budgeting and stretching food dollars, making healthy food choices and food safety practices are extremely important to help combat hunger.

To address the issue, the Martin County Nutrition Education Program partnered with Eden and Inez Head Start Parent Groups to offer a 7 topic series, “Healthy Choices For Everybody”, to 8 participants teaching hands on, nutrition education to a limited resource audience.

As a result of this program, 100% of participants showed improvement in one or more diet quality indicators, 63% of participants showed improvement in one or more food security indicators, 100% of participants showed improvement in one or more food resource management practices and 100% of participants showed improvement in one or more food safety practices. Post evaluations revealed the following positive changes: “ I can make my SNAP benefits last longer now because of the information you taught on using leftovers to make new recipes.” “ Thank-you for teaching us how to compare food prices and plan menus before going grocery shopping.” Participants also learned to substitute spices in recipes to reduce salt, sugar and fats in their meals.