From school visits I learned that a lot of young people in our county are interested in learning more cooking skills. To add more opportunities for youth to work on cooking skills, Pulaski County 4-H kickstarted a new program “Passport Kitchen” where students were able to cook dishes from countries around the world in their own homes. Passport Kitchen is a wonderful avenue to allow youth to practice cooking skills in a culturally immersive way. Each participant was given a kit that I prepared that included a brochure, culinary passport, luggage tags, a boarding pass, a packing list (ingredients card), a recipe, and one ingredient.

Our target audience was any 4-H age youth interested in exploring other cultures through culinary avenues. For the very first month of the program, we had over 30 youth sign up to participate. These 4-H’ers ranged in age from 9 to 17 years old. 

The initial goal of this program was to provide youth with an additional outlet to get hands on with their learning by gaining cooking skills through real-world practice. Students were able to practice skills such as measuring, using a stove stop, and creating dough. They were able to gain these life skills in the kitchen while also being immersed in another culture. Another initial outcome was just an increase in knowledge about the country of the month. Through the monthly brochures and luggage tags, participants were able to learn information about the country and how to say a few words in that country’s language. An intermediate outcome of this program would be increasing youth’s cultural awareness through the brochures and additional information given about the other countries. As a result, leading youth to use the knowledge they have gained to further explore other cultures and broaden their awareness of the differences in backgrounds from the people around them, hopefully creating community members who are able to recognize and appreciate the differences in our cultural backgrounds. While getting to explore February’s kits, one 4-H’er said she, “… liked the different items like tapioca flour and the discover Brazil info about the country.” She went on to say how excited she was to keep her passport and receive next month’s kit.