Through a partnership with WestCare Healthy Families in Lookout KY, the Pike County Expanded Foods and Nutrition Education Program (EFNEP) Assistant was instrumental in assisting clients to successfully transition back into their communities. After completing the Healthy Choices for EveryBody curriculum, these clients wanted to become healthier by making healthier food choices and enjoying exercise. WestCare Healthy Families is a tax-exempt nonprofit organization that provides a wide spectrum of health and human services in both residential outpatient environments. These services include substance abuse and addiction treatment, homeless and runaway shelters, domestic violence treatment and prevention, and mental health programs. Families in this program are eager to learn how to improve their quality of life. 

The Pike county EFNEP assistant taught (7) required lessons from the Healthy Choice for EveryBody curriculum to seventeen (17) clients in the WestCare Healthy Families program. Lesson topics included the following: Using My Plate to balance and plan meals; making healthier food choices; how to read food labels; food portion sizes; food safety; and learning the limits of fats, sugar, and sodium in your diet. 

Seventeen (17) clients entered the program with a 100% graduation rate. Eighty-eight percent showed improvement in Diet Quality, 94% improved in diet quality, 86% improved on food safety, and 86% improved on physical activity. 

One client stated, "Just because it tastes good doesn't mean that it's good for you, and I have learned how to make many healthy meals for a small price." Another client said, " I learned a lot in this class; however, what stood out to me the most, was that eating good nutritious food is good. I had the idea that I would have to substitute the taste for healthier food but that was incorrect. I feel fuller and more energetic now by eating healthier." 

Clients from WestCare Healthy Families were very appreciative of all the nutrition educational information and recipes they received. Teaching this group was personally rewarding to the EFNEP Assistant as well.