Specialized services

Extension services as usual

Community members will complete data collection at the extension office or community partner location. Extension cooking classes and helping to make raised bed gardens along with other area happenings will be offered to participants throughout the year with check-ins and reminders. Data will be collected from study participants (regardless of the intervention decided) , at two time points, to include survey, dietary recall, and carotenoid scanner.

Food Security Status will be measured at each time point by the 10-item United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) Household Food Security Module. The questionnaire includes ten questions pertaining to food security that were designed to assess an individual's ability to obtain food directly to ensure having enough healthy food to eat. The questions include items such as not having enough money to purchase food, inability to afford nutritious food, and skipping meals due to lack of sufficient money. Answer choices include often, sometimes, never, and don't know. Items will be scored Food security status is assigned as follows: raw score zero-High food security among adults, raw score 1-2-Marginal food security, raw score 3-5-Low food security, raw score 6-10-Very low food security. For some reporting purposes, the food security status of the first two categories in combination will be described as food secure and the latter two as food insecure.

The Healthy Eating Index is a measurement that can capture changes in the thirteen dietary components outlined in the Dietary Guidelines for Americans. A maximum score-5 or 10 points- can be reached for each dietary component, depending on the component. Points are awarded when the amounts consumed meets the standard for a particular dietary component. Amounts that do not meet the standard get fewer points, with zero being the minimum score, and the maximum total Healthy Eating Index score is 100.

30 item questionnaire to collect self-reported behaviors pertaining to five domains: diet, physical activity, food safety, food security and food resource management. The response options for each question are based on a Likert scale. Each question is scored with higher scores indicating greater frequency of the behavior in question.