The Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program comprises more 75% of the USDA Farm Bill budget allocation.  There are tens of millions of Americans who meet the economic threshold which qualifies them for benefits of this program that is primarily direct food item cost assistance.  Thousands of SNAP program eligible demographic reside in Daviess County.  There is a problem related to this program in that a large percentage of food purchased with these subsidy funds is underutilized because of lack of recipient knowledge in meal planning, meal preparation, and general food nutrition.  This leads to food waste, inefficient use of government tax funds, and poor health in subsidy recipients.     

Fortunately, the USDA recognizes the disconnect between food item selection and healthy meal preparation, partnering with the University of Kentucky Cooperative Extension Service to educate SNAP qualifying audiences how to receive the most nutritious and efficient benefit of food items purchased with SNAP funds.  This is done in numerous ways across Kentucky Counties and with the various eligible audience demographics throughout each county.  In Daviess County, the Agriculture and Natural Resources Agent focuses on youth with a three day outdoor cooking classroom each summer at the West Kentucky 4-H Camp.  Youth participants receive information and participate in hands-on activities related to preparing SNAP eligible recipes in a fun outdoor food preparation and cooking experience.

Each year more than 30 youth participate in preparing, cooking and tasting fun, nutritious SNAP qualifying recipes which they can return home and demonstrate for their parents or caregivers. Throughout the years parents have shared that their children returned from outdoor cooking class at 4-H camp to prepare the meals they learned about for their families.  It has also been observed that many youth at camp for the second or third year reenroll in outdoor cooking class to experience additional SNAP eligible recipes they can return home to demonstrate for their families.