The impact of Covid 19 is still being determined as families are gradually returning to normal.  Over the past 15 months, families have lost loved ones, lost jobs, and missed life miles-stones as schools were closed, events cancelled and day to day life came to a standstill for most of Kentucky.  Locally the Breckinridge County Family and Consumer Sciences program adapted program delivery to continue to serve families in a safe and meaningful way.  

The FCS and NEP Extension state specialist developed new virtual programs for implementation by agents at the county level.   Programs such as FCS Sizzlin’ Summer, Holidays at Home, Big Blue Challenge and Big Blue Book Club, provided important nutrition, family resource management, health and mental wellness and safety education.  State specialist provided the framework and content, through webinars and pod cast while agents and assistants were able to coordinate the delivery of informational packets and incentives to reinforce the learning at home.  Breckinridge County had over 100 families actively participating by picking up grab and go packets, signing-in to webinars and completing the packet activities.  Programs such as Maintain Don’t Gain and Cooking Through the Calendar were locally led through Facebook postings of food demonstrations. Addiction 101 and Know the 10 Signs of Alzheimer’s were conducted through Zoom and monthly Homemakers lessons were shared with mail-out lessons and YouTube videos.  Drive-thru events such as the Community Baby Shower provided an easy way for local agencies to visually check-in with mommy and baby to ensure the young families were receiving essential benefits.   Also, with the support of the school system, 500 cooking kits were distributed with games to support family game nights.  

Post-program surveys reported that the grab and go programs were very accessible to participants and supported cross program area participation.  The family activities and new recipes were listed as the most beneficial for supporting the healthy at home life-style.  Participants of Holidays at Home reported they planned to utilize positive parenting behaviors and increase physical activity.  Big Blue Challenge participants increased consumption of fruits and veggies and implemented money saving practices.  The Addiction 101 webinar was more accessible due to the online delivery mode and surveys reported that the program would impact professional development and would change practices when interacting with people in recovery.

The Covid 19 Pandemic mandated that the delivery modes for the FCS program shift from in-person to online and contactless interaction.  While experiencing technology challenges and missing that face-to -face interaction, programming did continue to serve the families and even expanded the reach to new participants.  The lessons learned during the pandemic can be carried forward to expand future impact and serve families in a new normal way.