Food Insecurity is an issue that faces many households in Kentucky.  In Daviess County, for example, there are 13,540 people who would be labeled as Food Insecure.  According to the 2017 Feeding America report, Food insecure households are not necessarily food insecure all the time. Food insecurity may reflect a household’s need to make trade-offs between important basic needs, such as housing or medical bills, and purchasing nutritionally adequate foods.  One important way to remedy this issue is with meal planning and grocery shopping.  

            The Daviess County Nutrition Education Program teamed up with Pleasant Valley Community Church to offer the Healthy Choice for Every Body curriculum to their “For the City” group of 20 low-income families.  The Daviess County NEP Assistant taught the Meal Planning for Everybody and the Eating Better on a Budget lessons back to back, to demonstrate how those things go hand and hand.  During the Meal Planning for Everybody lesson, the children of the families were encouraged to stay for the lesson and play the icebreaker “What’s for Dinner” found in the Healthy Choices for Everybody curriculum.  One participant stated, “I have never thought about getting my children involved in planning the family meals.  I’ll start now!”  

            At the exit of the program, participants improved significantly to help them become more food secure throughout the month.  When it came to the exit evaluation results, 19% of participants ate less than wanted; 95% planned meals in advance; 90% made a list before shopping; and 90% compared food prices more often.   One participant told the NEP assistant, “I had SNAP dollars left all month!  That has never happened!  I didn’t plan meals for the week until now.  I feel like we’re eating better because of this class.”