Performing face-to-face and in-person programming for the benefit of the Nelson County Community has been a hallmark of Cooperative Extension programs for over 100 years.  In the year 2020, making in-person meetings to help inspire life-skill development was an enormous challenge.  Lunch @ The Pantry is one program that continued, with extra safety precautions, throughout the middle part of 2020.  

The FCS Extension Agent in Nelson County has garnered a long-withstanding partnership with the "Bread For Life Food Pantry".  When the Pantry remodeled a new space for a "client-choice" food bank, the FCS-Pantry Collaboration was at the forefront; offering to equip a demonstration kitchen for the use of the FCS Agent and the Nutrition Education Program Assistant.  When the pandemic threw our lives into a whirlwind, many food insecure individuals and families in the community took the brunt.  The FCS Agent reached out to the Food Pantry to offer any and all help in assisting Nelson County's food insecure clientele.  The Pantry had grant funds left over from the previous management administration and the FCS Agent was willing to help provide cooking and food demonstrations with food donations the pantry already had in house.  Enter "Lunch @ the Pantry".  

The Bread For Life Food Pantry Manager noticed that many of their raw meats, vegetables and fruits were being looked over in favor of more "ready-to-eat" products which have been proven to have less nutritional value.  After asking Pantry clientele why they chose ready-to-eat products like donuts or cereals over canned or fresh proteins and vegetables, the same answer was provided over and over, "I just don't have the equipment, space or knowhow to make a meal".  With the goal to address this problem, over the course of 4 months, participants in "Lunch @ the Pantry" were presented with ways to make easy meals from the Cook Together Eat Together Curriculum, and received tangible resources to make each meal; things like a pots and pans set, pressure cooker, slow cooker, and a glass bakeware set.

Through 4 sessions, with a 5th planned before new COVID-19 restrictions, over 12 different participants joined for at least 1 session, while 6 participants joined for each and every Lunch @ the Pantry session.  Qualitative evaluation proved that the Lunch @ the Pantry program provided needed skills and information, as well as tangible resources to cook at home, for all participants involved.  At least half of the participants noted that they attempted to make at least 1 of the meal kits provided by the pantry, and demonstrated by the FCS Agent, at home.  Cooperative Extension in Nelson County, in lockstep with the Bread For Life Food Pantry, intends on re-offering the Cook Together Eat Together Program when COVID-19 restrictions for in-person and food safety restrictions are lifted.