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, last summer the Graves County Family Consumer Science agent conducted the Super Star Chef 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. 

95% of the participating students agreed or strongly agreed that they had learned how to identify healthy foods

94% planned to drink more water

84% 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 daughter was excited to try the recipes at home and loved making the apple blueberry crisp for our family.