Youth in every county are always looking for more activities to do outside so what better way then offering a program during spring break for “Outdoor Cooking”. This was a partnership between one of the Christian County 4-H Youth Development Agents and the Agricultural Natural Resource Agent. We wanted to create a program for youth in Christian County to learn the safety of cooking outdoors, how to start and put out a fire, lighting charcoal, outdoor handwashing skills, cooler packing, and working with cast iron.

This program was open to youth ages 9 to 18 in Christian County. We had 21 in attendance for the program that was hosted outside the Christian County Expo Center. Before the program, 33% youth had not cooked outdoors. On the pre-test, zero knew that the “danger zone” for food temperatures where germs grow the fastest was 41-139 Fahrenheit, but after 95% were able to label this zone. It was great to see the difference also on how many did not know how to properly put out a camp fire before the program versus after, 42% to 100%.

The full day program was successful from the comments also made by the participants. Some of the comments that were made: “This was the best day!” “Thank you so much for doing this.” “I’m going to tell my mom we have to do this more often.” The 4-H Outdoor Cooking is a program that the Agriculture Natural Resource Agent and I have determined that we should offer every year.