With Covid-19 shutting down in person classes in March of 2020, The McCracken County Cooperative Extension Service SNAP-Ed assistant decided continuing her partnership with the McCracken County Drug Courts meant that face to face, n person meetings would no longer be safe. A quick switch to a virtual platform was needed to be able to continue providing education to Drug Court participants. Researched-based information from the “Healthy Choices for Everybody” curriculum was used on how to access food and ways to stretch food dollars during a pandemic. 

A quick, private Facebook group set-up proved to be the easiest way to provide educational content to participants. Facebook Live made it possible to provide an actual date and time to watch the videos and interact with the SNAP-Ed assistant by using the comments section on the live page. On average, 24 adults watched each video live with others watching the recording after the live video posted. This rounded the total average number of participants to 35 a video. A post Qualtrics survey was used to collect all participants data thus giving the SNAP-Ed assistant a way to track the progress of each participant. 

Two live videos were offered and posted weekly. The following data was collected over a time span of a little over five months of participation. Improvement in diet quality was shown in multiple areas, reporting these percentages from participants:

·79% ate more red, orange and green vegetables

·74% more cooked dinner at home

·63% drank fewer regular sodas

·75.25% improved their overall food safety procedures

·77.20% improved their food resource management in their kitchen

One participant stated, “the videos made me feel like I was getting out of the house without actually leaving home and made me think of things I hadn’t thought of myself.” When asked to explain this she replied, “your food safety video with the glow germ powder made me more self-aware of how often I touch other things like my clothing or the counter then touch the food again while preparing my food.”