Students in Madison County, Kentucky are increasingly being faced with issues related to their independence and accountability in many facets of life, where they are not equipped with the basic life skills necessary to succeed, and kitchen or cooking skills are no exception.  Local families struggle to help their students meet this need for a variety of reasons, but primarily due to parents schedules and availability to set aside time dedicated to teaching these kinds of skills. as well as limited resources of food insecurities for some families.

Super Star Chef gives students 12 hours of cooking camp over three days where they learn a wide variety of skills that include: food safety, knife skills, kitchen appliance awareness, measuring techniques, physical activity, and leadership opportunities, as well as introduces them to many diverse recipes with fresh fruits and vegetables.  The recipes are economical as they are generally limited ingredient and offer the students a great opportunity to try foods that they have likely not tried before.

This program is targeted for students ages 9-12 and there were 18 pre-teen Madison County students that completed all three days of the Super Star Chef program this year. Super Star Chef is presented by the FCS Agent with assistance from the Madison County FCS assistants, the Senior SNAP ED Assistant, and the 4H assistant.

Students in the Super Star Chef Camp used a pre and post survey at the beginning and end of the camp to gauge their knowledge and experience, as well as confidence levels.  Overall, each child in the class showed growth and the class average on knowledge portion was 3.3125 points.(One student received two perfect scores!)  The class had 13 students who noted growth in the content that considered their level of confidence in the kitchen. The class average of growth in confidence was 5.8125 points and the child with the most growth grew 25 points! The last area on the survey measured the students' behavior change.  The behavior change class average showed growth at 2.647 points.  The behavior change components measure the students intentions to continue using the foods, recipes, and techniques that they have learned throughout the course of Super Star Chef.  (*Note: there were 3 students who chose to attend camp this year for their second time.)