Children are being raised in homes where traditional cooking skills are not being taught to our next generations.  Our culture and fast paced society does not lend to family meal time and time spent teaching life skills to children, this includes young adults as well as young children.  In response to this issue, Madison County FCS has started a monthly family cooking program where parents can bring their children and prepare healthy and tasty meals.  The program is based around the "Cook Together, Eat Together" curriculum with supplemental recipes being added from Plan Eat Move/ Super Star Chef/ and Plate it Up resources. The recipes selected for this group are simple and beginner based to accommodate families from all backgrounds and with variable resource accessibility.  The program started in August 2023 and is running monthly with the exception of December (due to holidays).  The target audience for this program is any parent/ grandparent/ or caregiver with children ages 4-18. The majority of the participants have been families with children 4-10 years of age.  Each class averages 7-9 families in participation with a consistently full roster of 12 families and waitlist.  The families have worked together to learn new cooking skills and methods, networked to meet new local families, and have loved the variety of recipes offered through this course series.  The children are encouraged to participate in food preparation and recipe interpretation in any way they can assist.  The recipes offered have included a wide variety of recipes such as soups, pastas,  casseroles, and various fruits/ vegetables with innovative ways to entice picky young children to taste them.  The theme each month offers a tailored experience and lends to the season, month, or closest holiday.  For example, in February we hosted a "Lady and the Tramp" theme dinner where the families made one pot pasta (spaghetti) and then created chocolate covered strawberries in a fountain for themselves and the parents.

This series will finish up in May 2024- where a post evaluation survey will be conducted and results added to account for each families experiences.