According to a national survey of secondary family and consumer sciences programs the enrollment in a Home Economics class or Family and Consumer sciences class has gone down to 38% fewer enrolled over the past 10 years.  This means that less students are receiving the opportunity to learn basic life skills such as food safety, cooking skills, recipe reading and meal planning. Basic life skills such as cooking techniques, food safety and meal planning should be taught at an early age in order for those skills to be beneficial as adult.

The Muhlenberg County Cooperative Extension Services identified basic cooking skills, food safety techniques and meal planning as the main points to address in the team program called “Guy’s Guide to Cooking.” This program was offered to teens that were in middle school or high school. This program encouraged team work, decision making, planning, nutrition education and food preparation. During the program the participants were taught about basic knife skills, kitchen terms, kitchen equipment, grill and meat safety, table etiquette and basic nutrition education. After being taught all of those skills the participants were put to the test by having to complete a 3-course meal that would be served to the Muhlenberg County Cattlemen’s Association and their families.  The participants had the opportunity to work with a representative from the Beef Council that taught them how to properly grill meat while using correct food safety techniques. This program was funded by a grant through the Felix Martin Foundation in hopes to teach young people vital life skills. 

At the end of the program participants were evaluated to reflect what skills and knowledge was gained during the program. When asked how confident they were when using measuring equipment 87% of the participants responded confident or totally confident. All of the participants who attended the program were able to identify a chef’s knife and how to use it properly. When asked to list all 5 food groups 87% of the participants either knew all 4 food groups or all 5 of the food groups. 

This program was a group effort in the Muhlenberg County Extension Office with Darrell Simpson ANR Agent, Mackenzie Pogue 4-H Agent, Mary Beth Riley FCS Agent, Viola Wood SNAP-Ed Assistant and Judy McGehee 4-H program assistant providing programming.