Author: Nola Janeen Tramble
Planning Unit: Crittenden County CES
Major Program: Super Star Chef
Plan of Work: Healthy Lifestyle Choices for Family and Youth
Outcome: Intermediate Outcome
According to 2017 data from the State of Obesity website, the obesity rate for children ages 10 to 17 in Kentucky is 19.3%. This places Kentucky at third highest in the nation for childhood obesity rates in this age group. Recent research has indicated that teaching cooking skills to children encourages healthier food choices, which can lower obesity rates. In an effort to address this problem, the Crittenden County Family Consumer Science agent, 4-H agent and SNAPed assistant presented SuperStar Chef, a three day camp for students ages 9 through 12 that is designed to teach kitchen safety, food safety, nutrition concepts, and physical activity. In addition, the students practiced food preparation skills with supervision. There were eight participants in the camp. Overall, pretest and posttest comparisons of total participant scores show that the program enhanced understanding of the concepts taught by the program. Post-test scores showed an 80% knowledge increase over the pre-test. In addition, 100% of the participating students agreed or strongly agreed that they had learned how to identify healthy foods, 100% planned to drink more water, and 100% planned to be more physically active. Also, 100% of participants’ cooking self-efficacy increased from pretest to posttest. Somel of the parents commented on how much the kids liked coming to the camp and reported that their children had prepared some recipes at home for their families. Several kids commented on how tasty the recipes were. One parent said, “Last night we had the egg scramble with some of the vegetables from our garden.”
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