Middle school is tough for many children, their bodies are changing and growing up is hard. The Farristown Middle School Family Resource Center (FRC) does a great job at staying ahead of some of these difficult transitions for their students. The FRC director contacted the Supplemental Nutrition Education Assistant Senior (Snap-Ed) in Madison County to ask if they could offer an after-school cooking club to their students as well as another middle school. These two middle schools were forced to discontinue Family and Consumer Sciences class after a large decrease in teaching staff in the 21-22 school year. The FRC director sees these as fundamental life skills necessary for the future success of these middle schoolers.

The assistant offered a seven-week class with 16 sixth, seventh and eighth graders in attendance. The students learned safe food handling and proper hand washing, MyPlate, basic food prep and cooking skills, meal planning, and knife safety. Each week, the students would be taught a lesson, reiterating what was learned the week prior, prepare a dish and properly clean up after. During the last session, one student, while preparing to make homemade chicken nuggets, expressed concern to the assistant about a honey mustard dipping sauce. The assistant was demonstrating how to make your own by combining honey with mustard and the health benefits of that. The assistant encouraged the student to take a “hello bite” offering the demo to the student. To the student’s surprise, she liked it and talked to the assistant about making it at home with the chicken nuggets for her family with some adaptions to accommodate her families’ dietary restrictions. All 16 participants showed increase in practice and knowledge and requested an advanced class next school year.