Mississippi is predominantly rural, with a population of less than three million, consisting of small towns with low population density, slow population growth, and high poverty rates

Over half of its counties are classified as persistently poor, and approximately 19.2% of households received snap benefits in 2023. Mississippi has limited public transportation and lacks internet accessibility and healthcare access in some localities. The geographic isolation, high poverty, and unemployment in these areas pose barriers, making IT challenging for residents to obtain fresh, affordable food, leading to high levels of food insecurity. Factors such as the ones listed here make MS a unique setting: 0.03% MS population growth rate compared to 0.88% united states (US), 51.2% of residents living in rural areas, 19.1% of residents live in poverty compared to 11.5% US, and 27.9% of children live in poverty. MS has the highest percentage of children in the care of their grandparents in the US (7%), compared to 3% in the US. Dietary intake and physical inactivity are two behaviors related to poor health conditions. In the most recent data, 4.1% of adults reported consuming two or more fruits and three or more vegetables daily, compared to 7.4% of the US. Additionally, 13.4% of MS students did not eat fruit or drink juices, and 16.6% did not eat vegetables over seven days. Similarly, 31.9% of MS adults reported no physical activity or exercise other than their regular job in the past 30 days compared to the US average of 23.4%, and 24.8% of youth did not do 60 minutes of physical activity on at least one day, compared to 15.8% nationally. Mississippi's efnep focuses on snap-eligible families and youth. An emphasis is placed on parents and other adult caregivers (i.e., grandparents) who have primary responsibility for feeding young children, pregnant teens, youth, and school-aged children (kindergarten and above), as well as pregnant women and emancipated teen parents or teens with childcare responsibilities. We will enhance our efforts to reach adult participants in communities where they live and collaborate with other agencies serving limited-resource families. Adults will be reached through housing authorities, churches, county health offices, department of human services offices, food pantries, parent meetings at public schools or head start, community action centers, and libraries. We have successfully used digital flyers that partners post on social media to recruit adult participants. Parents also receive information indirectly from their children who participate in efnep. Youth participants will be reached through public schools (78.2% of MS students qualify for free and/or reduced lunch), boys and girls clubs, afterschool programs, summer programs, limited resource 4-H clubs and scout troops, summer feeding sites, housing authorities, park and recreation settings, and churches. The following counties (N=29) are proposed for conducting efnep programs in FY2025: attala, chickasaw, clarke, covington, grenada, hinds, holmes, jasper, jefferson davis, jones, kemper, lafayette, lamar, lauderdale, LEE, leflore, marion, monroe, montgomery, newton, pontotoc, quitman, scott, simpson, tallahatchie, tate, washington, wayne and winston. Teaching skills that help limited resource youth and adults eat smart, increase physical activity, and achieve a healthy weight may contribute to reversing MS trends. Families, especially those with children living in poverty, are vulnerable to food and nutrition insecurity, inadequate nutrition, and illness. Efnep influences behaviors that promote improved diets, food choices, food resource management, food safety, physical activity, and food security, thus mitigating the impacts of poverty, food insecurity, and poor nutrition. Efnep can improve the health of limited-resource MS families and youth by providing nutrition education and through its volunteer, technology, and partnership policies