4-H Cooking Club, Baking Edition was created to meet several needs in Trigg County.  First was the need to teach young people to prepare foods at home and not be as dependent on processed foods from the grocery and fast food businesses.  Obesity and chronic disease is a problem for nearly half of all adults in the county.  A second need was an economic one.  Family finances are very unstable right now and inflation can be seen in our grocery stores.  Youth who have a variety of food preparation skills can do more with cheaper staple food products and not have to purchase more expensive over-processed products.  A third need was teaching young people a skill that they could take home and share with their families, thus strengthening family bonds. We also wanted to encourage 4-H'ers to enter baked goods that would be eligible for the Kentucky State Fair.  

The 4-H Cooking Club, Baking Edition was led by the Trigg County Family and Consumer Sciences Agent and Trigg County 4-H Youth Development Agent.  Five members met for a series of 6 sessions using a combination of Super Star Chef, Baking Edition, and recipes from the 4-H Foods category for the Kentucky State Fair. One member of the class has a rare degenerative disease and his grandfather participated in the classes to assist him.  We baked muffins, biscuits, soft pretzels, pie crusts, cookies, and cakes.

The goal of the 4-H Cooking Club is to help youth become self-sufficient in the kitchen, while learning healthy habits that will last a lifetime and influence the people around them. While several things that we baked were foods that you would only eat occasionally, we emphasized the importance of baking these items at home instead of depending on overly-processed foods from the grocery or quik restaurants.  We showed them how they can produce versions of these foods with less fat, salt, and sugar.  

100% of the members indicated they tried new foods, learned new food preparation techniques, and practiced these skills at home.