4-H Fresh Chefs and their purchases from the Meade County Farmer's Market.

Ms. Becky, 4-H Volunteer, demonstrates a new kitchen technique.

4-H Fresh Chefs preparing their butternut squash for a new recipe.

So many fresh & local options available at the Meade County Farmer's Market for our youth.

The Meade County 4-H Fresh Chefs Club was a volunteer lead, 4-week, summer program that focused on healthy food preparation, food and kitchen safety, the benefits of shopping at a local farmer’s market, and food preparation on a budget.  Each 3-hour meeting included the following agenda: 

1. Introductory Smoothie – a recipe to jump start the learning process and to encourage positive member interactions.
2. Group discussion or demonstration – Subjects included: in season produce, kitchen etiquette, food preparation safety, kitchen sanitation, and teamwork in a kitchen setting.
3. Let’s Shop – participants will visit the local farmer’s market to shop for fresh ingredients for the day’s recipes. Each week, participants received a $10 voucher (sponsored by the Meade County Farmer’s Market) to purchase ingredients to prepare the weekly recipe at home.
4. Weekly recipe preparation – participants will prepare the recipes of the week that they can then replicate at home for their families.

The 4-H Fresh Chefs summer program utilized the National 4-H Council 4-H Fresh Chefs publication as a source for recipes as well as the University of Kentucky, Cooperative Extension Service, Nutrition Education Program website www.planeatmove.com for SNAP eligible program recipes.  The inclusion of locally grown foods, such as those from a farmer’s market, provided the freshest ingredients available for many delicious recipes throughout the spring, summer and fall seasons.  A final off-site tour was arranged by our 4-H volunteer to a local community supported agriculture (CSA) farm.  

This program was a true community partnership including the 4-H Youth Development program, 4-H volunteer, Meade County Farmer’s Market, Barr Family Farm CSA and the Kentucky 4-H Foundation.  The 4-H Youth Development Agent created a recruitment flyer, shared registration information via 4-H newsletter and social media with the target audience of youth, ages 12-18, took registration and communicated with families on program details.  Ms. Becky, 4-H Volunteer and parent, worked with 4-H Youth Development Agent to create program plan for the 4-week summer program, was the lead instructor for the program, and organized the off-site field trip to a local community supported agriculture farm family.  The Meade County Farmer’s Market sponsored the weekly ten-dollar market tokens that the youth participants received to shop at the market to take home fresh, local produce and handmade goods and products.  The program received a 2023 KY 4-H Ag Mini Grant from the Kentucky 4-H Foundation for $250.00.  This grant was matched by the voucher sponsorship by the Meade County Farmer’s Market and the 4-H Youth Development Agent’s program support funds.  

Four program participants, two who were brand new to Meade County 4-H completed the four-week program.  Three of those youth were 12 years old and the fourth was 15 years old.  Through discussions with the participants at each program, it was learned that almost every recipe they prepared contained at least one ingredient that they had never tried before OR previously refused to try.  Fortunately, by preparing the recipe themselves, each participant tried each recipe and 90% of the time stated they like the recipe.  None of the participants had a garden at home, so they enjoyed shopping at the farmer’s market each week to take home locally grown, fresh produce, herbs, and handmade items.  

Each week, participants:

1. made healthy recipes using mostly items from the farmer’s market,
2. learned and put into practice safe kitchen and food safety practices,
3. shopped at the farmer’s market on a budget of $10, 
4. learned and put into practice how to choose quality produce,
5. learned and put into practice the management of kitchen space, equipment and clean up processes,
6. tried new foods, and 
7. worked as a team to prepare recipes.

The Barr Family (https://www.barrfarmsky.com/) hosted our group on a rainy day and gave a tour of their community supported ag processing facility.  The day we visited they were boxing up produce to be delivered to the Whole Foods grocery store in St. Matthews in Jefferson County.  All participants had shopped there before and were excited to know that local products were sold there.

The program was a huge success as participants and the volunteer leader not only had fun, but learned lots of new things and put into practice at home the skills they learned each week during the program.  Participants were awarded a completion goody basket of kitchen items to take home to use to continue to hone their food preparation skills.  Ms. Becky, 4-H Volunteer, has already to begin planning for the 2024 summer 4-H Fresh Chefs program.  A 6-month follow up evaluation is planned to check in on participants to see how their extended experiences are going.