Today, youth find it so easy to place a frozen meal into the microwave and say they can cook. Franklin County Schools are one of many in Kentucky who are nearly 100% free and reduced lunch; therefore, it was an easy decision to host the Super Star Chef program in Franklin County to fulfill the need of youth knowing how to prepare meals for their family and to try new foods.

The Extension Agent for 4-H Youth Development and Family Consumer Sciences collaborated to host this program, promoting, planning lunch each day, and taking care of the logistics; making sure the youth had a photo release, were enrolled in the Franklin County 4-H program, and had confirmed of any food allergies. The program filled within days with 20 youth who participated (4 males and 16 females/ 3 African American and 17 white). 

The Super Star Chef program lasted three-days, four hours each day. The youth participated in numerous activities together and in small groups. At the end of the program, they mastered a variety of cooking techniques, like chopping, dicing, blending, folding and whipping; made homemade meals lie fresh salsa, fruity parfaits, tasty veggie pizza, and oven-baked calzones; discovered foods that are good fuel for their body and what provided them energy to play hard; and learned how to read food labels to identify if foods are safe to eat. 

At the end of the program, the youth were given reusable bags filled with cooking utensils, recipes of the foods they had made, aprons, a jump rope and football to increase their physical activity. The youth completed a pre-evaluation the first day of the program and a post-evaluation at the end of the program. Analyzing the evaluations, 95% of the youth who attended had never cooked a meal for their family, but strongly agreed to make meals for their family after what they learned from the program! Also, 88% of youth tried something new while attending the program and agreed it was not too bad.  

Testimonies:

“I didn’t know spinach could taste this good!”

“This was the first time I have used a knife and I did not cook off my finger!”

“This was a fun, camp!”