The problem

In our modern world, we rely heavily on electricity for almost every aspect of our lives, including cooking. But what happens if there's a power outage, natural disaster or other emergency situation that disrupts our access to electricity? In these situations, it's important to know how to cook without electricity.  Power outages can occur due to various reasons, such as severe weather, equipment failures, and human errors.  The Todd County Extension Office, 4-H Agent and NEP assistant provided a 4-H Outdoor Cooking Club this fall to teach youth how to cook in the outdoors without power. 

The educational program response

The 4-H agent and NEP assistant provided 3 club meetings consisting of nine total hours in instruction for 18 youth who signed up for the 4-H Outdoor Cooking Club. Lessons consisted of cooking with propane on a Blackstone griddle, cooking over a campfire, cooking over charcoal and  even how to start a fire using flint in the event of a prolonged power outage.  The youth also learned about fire safety, measuring skills, knife cutting skills, and proper refrigeration in the even of an outage. 

A pre and post test was used to survey the youth involved and results were as follows: 

100% of the youth improved their abilities to choose foods according to federal dietary recommendations. 

100% of the youth learned safe food handling practices in the event of an outage. 

100% of the youth improved their physical fitness during the program. 

In addition to the surveys, an end of program focus group was conducted to see what practices youth had adopted: 

80% of the youth successfully cooked at home using an alternative power option (campfire or charcoal) 

85% of the youth revealed that they had implemented exercise into their week due to the program. 

55% of the youth utilized proper knife and measuring skills at home due to what they learned. 

This program was a lot of fun and it was something new for the youth. Parents were excited that their kids were learning how to start and build a campfire as well as learning about the grill.