The Johnson County Senior SNAP-Ed Assistant has worked with the Johnson County Middle Schools 7^th and 8^th grade Life Skills class for the semester. There are 67 students divided into 4 classes, where we use the Teen Cuisine Curriculum. When asked, 52 of the students said they did not like trying new foods and were not comfortable working in a kitchen or using knives to prepare foods for recipes.

We started our lessons on Reading Recipes, Measuring, Food Safety, Cleaning Up in The Kitchen and our last day was on Knife Skills and Safety. Leading up to this day the Senior SNAP-Ed assistant planned for a special guest. Lizzy Neutz, Miss Kentucky USA to attend and work with the students for the day. She assisted with recipe directions, knife skills and preparing the recipe, Easy Sheet Pan Chicken Bake. The students were so excited to join in. All were participating in recipe prepping and using the knife skills that were taught that day. We talked about good eating habits, and possible chronic disease from a poor diet. After the recipe was prepared and cooked, all the students tried it, and all said they liked trying the new combination of foods in the recipe and were going to take the recipe home to make for their family.  

After the 2^nd class the school had an assembly where the entire student body got to meet Miss Kentucky USA. She gave an amazing speech on being a positive role model, her passion for cooking and setting and meeting goals in life.