WP question meta key’s returning an array, how can I examine this to a date?

I am utilizing the ACF Multi Dates Discipline plugin with ACF to permit consumer to pick a number of dates for an occasion. I want to match the return worth of the multi date plugin to the present days date. However the return worth is an array array(1) { [0]=> string(10) "2021-09-30" }.

Is there a approach to examine the date array to todays date within the question?

Here is my code. The multi date subject title is event_date.

$args = array (
    'post_type' => array( 'occasions' ),
    'posts_per_page' => -1,
    'author_name' => $current_user->user_nicename,
    'orderby' => 'meta_value',
    'order' => 'ASC',
    'meta_key' => 'event_date',
    'meta_query' => array(
        array(
            'key'           => 'event_date',
            'examine'       => '>=',
            'worth'         => $date_now,
            'sort'          => 'DATE',
        )
    ),
);