Our Impact
Making A Difference in Our County
University of Georgia Cooperative Extension is working hard for its constituents. The following are examples of Extension’s impact in the county in 2024.
4-H Youth Development
In 2024-2025, Glynn County 4-H served all 10 elementary schools. 4-H visited fifth-grade classrooms, providing hands-on science education for around 1,000 students. In addition to visiting fifth-grade classrooms, Glynn County 4-H partnered with the 21st Century Program to deliver science instruction to 3rd and 4th?graders at Burroughs-Molette, Goodyear, and Altama Elementary Schools, as well as 6th?graders at all four middle schools. Glynn County 4-H got out of the classroom and onto the beach to teach constructive and destructive forces to fifth graders at Altama, Sterling, and Golden Isles Elementary schools. Glynn County 4-H has also partnered with Brunswick High School's AP Environmental Science class to provide field trips and in-school learning opportunities. This partnership has provided unique field trips and hands-on activities, including a marsh walk, a visit to Chemours Mine in Brantley County, and a shark dissection in the classroom.
In the past year, Glynn County 4-H has increased enrollment and participation by over 250 youth in grades 4-12 and hosted over 100 more activities. Some of these activities include teen-led clubs, which are created and operated by Senior 4-H'ers. These clubs include Art for Heart, an art club for 7th- 12th graders, STEM Club for 4th- 6th graders, and Garden Club, led by a teen and a Master Gardener Volunteer for 4th- 12th graders. In addition to teen-led and volunteer-led clubs, Glynn County 4-H has monthly County Council meetings for all 4-H members in Glynn County.
Glynn County 4-H'ers have also had the opportunity to participate in district and state events. These include competitions, like Project Achievement, Cotton Boll and Consumer Judging, and Egg Chef. Additionally, 4-H'ers attended Summer Camps, Mission Make It, Senior Regional Leadership Conference, 4-H Day at the Capitol, Junior Conference, Southern Region Teen Leadership Conference, and Spring Junior Conference. Glynn County 4-H will represent the Southeast District in 2025-2026 by serving on the Senior Board of Directors as the elected President, as well as the Vice President and an additional representative on the Junior Board of Directors.
Family and Consumer Sciences
The Glynn County Family and Consumer Sciences (FACS) Agent, Michelle Quick, assists in addressing real-life issues faced by Georgians of all ages. The agent provides programs and research-based information on nutrition and well-being, food and financial insecurity, healthy housing and environments, food safety, and preservation. Michelle travels throughout Glynn and McIntosh counties, partnering with local agencies to provide research-based education to community members and groups.? These groups can include (but not limited to) HeadStart programs, local civic groups and churches, Coastal Pines Technical College, Job Corps, Gateway Behavioral Health, Sea Island, Glynn-Brunswick Library, City of Brunswick Parks and Recreation, local senior centers and support groups, and the Glynn County Government. During the 2024 program year, Michelle taught 32 adult programs, reaching 340 participants. Total youth reached through FACS programming totaled 86 participants through eleven different community and 4-H related programs.
During 2024, Michelle developed an award-winning youth curriculum, Kitchen Masters, a healthy living program for youth that strives to foster positive development, lifestyle behaviors, and self-confidence from kitchen to table. Program topics include food safety, handwashing, knife skills, and dining etiquette.
Kitchen Masters is an interactive, hands-on program for youth between the ages of 6th – 12th grade. The program consists of three main topic areas: food safety and handwashing, knife skills, and dining etiquette.
Michelle Quick is also responsible for the management and oversight of the USDA NIFA grant-funded program, the Expanded Food and Nutrition Education Program (EFNEP). Suzanne Walker, EFNEP Program Assistant, spends her time in the community providing this free nutrition education series that teaches families how to stretch their food dollars, eat healthier meals and snacks, and reduce the risk of foodborne illnesses.
In 2024, Glynn County EFNEP directly reached 168 adults, representing households of 524 individuals. Sixty-eight adult participants attended enough sessions of the Food Talk series to become program graduates. These EFNEP Graduates reported improvements in behaviors related to the core areas of EFNEP:
?Diet Quality:
·? 50% increased fruit intake.
·???????? 45% increased vegetable intake.
In 2024, Glynn County EFNEP directly reached 122 youth with direct education sessions.
·???????? 89 youth attended enough educational sessions to become program graduates.?
·???????? 84% improved diet quality.
·???????? 62% increased physical activity.
·???????? 53% reduced the risk of foodborne illness.???
·???????? 53% improved their ability to prepare simple, nutritious, and affordable food.
Agriculture and Natural Resources
ANR programs provide research-based information in the area of Agriculture and Natural Resources to all residents. Educational programming is developed and designed to assist individuals in making sound economical environmental decisions that affects everyday life. MC Halbrook, ANR agent for Glynn and McIntosh Counties, served both counties through 4 major program efforts in 2022. These were the Glynn County Master Gardener Extension Volunteers (MGEV), McIntosh County Bee Club, Seed Libraries in both counties, and Egg Candling Certification Courses for both counties.
The Glynn County MGEV program has been on pause while the ANR position was vacant. Since the program’s re-instatement in April of 2022, the MGEVs have logged 74.5 service hours and reached 93 client contacts. While the MGEV program is established in Glynn County, members have volunteered for McIntosh County as well to help Halbrook with her programming efforts in both counties.
The McIntosh County Bee Club was also on pause for a short while. We began meeting regularly again in October of 2022. We currently have 10 active members who are at varying levels of beekeeping experience. The monthly meetings serve as a time to update beekeepers on current educational materials, monthly schedule of tasks, and most importantly, provides a space for beekeepers to share their experiences with others! This Bee Club is open to anyone interested in bees and pollinators, not just those who are current beekeepers.
The Seed Libraries are set up for clients to “check-out” seeds, grow them for a season, harvest seeds from their crop, and then “return” the seeds back to our library. This provides an opportunity for seed sharing and maintaining heirloom plants. Over the course of 2022, we saw a great response from people interested in seed sharing. On Facebook, there were over 10,800 interactions with our posts specifically about the Seed Library. We currently have 10 participants enrolled in the library “system”. Last year, we set up a table at 4 major community events where we passed out seeds and shared info about the library and spoke to 449 people during these events.
Citizens who have backyard flocks and wish to sell their eggs need to have the Egg Candling certification in order to ensure proper food safety. Selling locally produced food cuts down on costs for consumers and sellers alike. This also provides the opportunity to meet the owners of an establishment and instill trust in the product. Having this certification not only allows citizens to sell their eggs, but it also trains them in proper candling procedure to make sure that the eggs being sold are of the highest quality. To meet this need, MC Halbrook collaborated with Haleigh Goodroe, the regional trainer with Georgia Department of Agriculture to provide two certification sessions in 2022, resulting in 59 new certified individuals.
Along with these 4 focus areas, McIntosh County processed 85 soil samples and 16 water samples to help clients gain a better understanding of their soil and water needs. For both counties, Halbrook had over 1,500 interactions with clients through office and site visits, calls, and emails. These clients reach out with questions covering plant diseases, pests, lawn maintenance, agricultural commodities, trees, and more.
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