The 2023 Dietary guidelines recommend that children ages 9-13 consume 2-3 cups of vegetables and two cups of fruit per day. Dietaryguidelines.gov reports that children in the 9–13-year-old age group only scored fifty-two out of one hundred on the Healthy Eating Index from the National Institute of Health. The Butler County Nutrition Education Program Assistant and the Butler County Family Resource and Youth Service Center partnered for a Jr Chef’s club to teach fifteen fifth grade students the importance of eating fruits and vegetables and how to prepare them.

Students met at the Butler County Extension Office on Fridays for three weeks 2-hour sessions. – and each lesson contained new recipes to try that focused on fruits and vegetables. They also were taught healthy drink choices, food safety, reading labels and the importance of eating breakfast. Upon completion of the class the students showed a 67% improvement in the frequency of eating vegetables, 67% improvement in frequency of drinking sports drinks, 42% improvement in drinking soda, 42% improvement eating vegetables for lunch and 58% improvement of tasting new foods. One student demonstrated a fruit recipe in Butler County 4H speech demonstration, and her parents shared that she prepares the recipes weekly for her family. Others shared that they went home and prepared the recipes again for their families.

The improvements stretched far beyond the classroom. Seeing these children utilize what they learned is remarkable. The Butler County Nutrition Education Program Assistant, and The Butler County Family and Youth Services Center partnership impacted the lives and nutrition knowledge of these children, and that knowledge was shared with their families.