Underserved Youth Gain Nutrition Skills

The Pike County Cooperative Extension Office Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Education Program (SNAP-Ed) partnered with The Sapling Center this year.  The Pike County Sapling Center is one of six (6) youth centers in Eastern Kentucky in which young people, aged 14-25, can go to feel less alone in the world and to receive a variety of resources in a comfortable environment.  The Sapling Center offers individual counseling, group therapy, life skills training, group activities & academic assistance.

An essential part of life skills training for teenagers involves imparting kitchen and nutrition skills focusing on how to make healthy choices.   The SNAP-Ed assistant partnered with the Sapling Center to teach the Teen Cuisine curriculum to students receiving services.  The center provided space and extra volunteers for each lesson.  Students were taught how to prepare simple meals for themselves by learning how to read a recipe; measure both liquid and solid ingredients; and properly use basic kitchen utensils, equipment and knives safely.Teen Cuisine also includes physical activity program suggestions to promote the importance of being active and eating healthier for a healthy lifestyle.

Teen Cuisine classes at the Sapling Center have had tremendous impact on the students. The mother of a participant, who is on the Autism spectrum, reported the following. “He told me he went to a Christmas party at Gatti’s and ate a salad.  That something he’s never done before!  When I asked him why he decided to eat a salad, he said, ‘Because salads are healthy and Ms. Debbie said we need to eat vegetables to be healthy.’ His diet has mostly been burger, fries, pizza (fast food items), but since Teen Cuisine classes at the Sapling Center, he is very willing to try different foods they have made there.  He tells me he really looks forward to the lessons and that he marks the days on his calendar so he doesn’t forget.”