Twenty-seven five-year-olds walk into kindergarten on the first day of school in southeastern Kentucky. On average, nine of those children live in poverty, two were born to mothers who did not complete high school, two were removed from their homes because of abuse or neglect, and fourteen are from single-parent homes: this according to statistics for the 22-county service area of Eastern Kentucky University (EKU) provided by Kentucky Youth Advocates. For several of these five-year-olds, school lunch and breakfast are the only meals they will eat that day. These children, their peers, families, schools, and communities are the focus of Eastern Kentucky University's regional stewardship initiative, which strives to reduce the barriers children face in obtaining an education and to enhance communities by developing programs to improve the quality of life in the area. EKU's new initiative: the educational extension agent program, is believed to be the first of its kind undertaken by any regional comprehensive university in the nation and designed to assist the schools and communities located in its 22-county service region.