Recently I was at the kick off at the summer meals at the local district school, a small school K-12, I was welcomed by a High School Sophomore with a beautiful sentence "You tought me how to cook when I was little".

Whitley county has all the three school district qualify for free breakfast and lunch. Kentucky State University has done the Rookie Cooking Camp (RCC) every summer since 2017, the RCC is a program that teaches kids from 9am to 2pm, 4 day in a row that teaches them different cooking skills, my plate, reading label, food safety, kitchen safety and table etiquette, the youngest group that I had are 4th graders and the olders are middle schoolers. The camps usually have guests, local chef, food safety professionals and sometimes we also visit a local grocery store. The kids make their own luch and the last day they usually cook for the families. This effort is not done just but the University but requieres volunteers and partnership with schools and other organizations that can help with the program.

Usually is a very intense week and we don't always know about the impact afterwards, so knowing that a fifth grader girl took the knowledge that we gave her home and used it is by it self a success, futhermore during this encunter I also talked to her grandmother, which is her caregiver and told me how this young lady has help her with the cooking since the camp and specially since she was diagnosed with celiac disease.

This year I had my last RCC in Corbin Kentucky a group of eighteen kids, and the for the fisrt time I also have four male kids. 4th to 5th graders. I hope that in the future I can hear from them too.