According to 2020 data from the State of Obesity website, the obesity rate for children ages 10 to 17 in Kentucky is 23.8%. This places Kentucky at the highest in the nation for childhood obesity rates in this age group.

In addition, the Powell County Health Coalition identified childhood obesity as a grassroots issue facing the community. Recent research has indicated that teaching cooking skills to children encourages healthier food
choices, which can lower obesity rates.

 To address this problem, the Powell County Family Consumer Science agent partnered with the SNAP Education Assistant and 4-H Youth Development Agent to present SuperStar Chef. This 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.

Overall, pretest and posttest comparisons of total participant scores show that the program enhanced understanding of the concepts taught by the program. In addition, 88% of the participating students agreed or strongly agreed that they had learned how to identify healthy foods, 92% planned to drink more water, and 94% planned to be more physically active. Also, participants’ cooking self-efficacy increased from pretest to posttest. Several 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. One parent said, “My son loves to help me fix dinner now.”