According to the Kentucky Hunters for the Hungry, “an estimated 684,000 people live in poverty in the Commonwealth; One in every four Kentucky children is living in poverty; In some counties as many as 55% of children are living in poverty, and Kentucky ranks fifth in the nation for percentage of residents living in poverty at 17%.”  With these statistics and as an avid outdoorswoman, the Henry County Extension Agent for Family and Consumer Sciences saw a problem and chose to host a Cook Wild series to introduce the sport of hunting and wild game to families in the county and surrounding area.  

The Cook Wild Series was a six-week program, meeting weekly to focus on different types of game.  Each week, participants listened to a special guest about a specific type of game: its habitat, how to hunt the species, the season to hunt the wild game, how to harvest the animal and how to prepare it, including taste sampling a recipe from the Cook Wild Kentucky recipes, prepared by the Henry County Extension Agent for FCS.  The wild game included in the series were: deer, turkey, fish, waterfowl, rabbit and squirrel.  Mushrooms were also included in the series for participants to know the correct and incorrect types of wild mushroom that can be consumed.

At the end of the series, a total of 38 people attended the program: including youth and families.  From the evaluation results, 80% of those who attended hunt and/or fish to provide food for their family, 10 people receive wild game from family and neighbors to consume and two people who participated had never hunted or fished but want to learn to provide for their families.  The response from the people who attended the Cook Wild series was strong; some attendees had never tried certain wild game until attending the series, 90% of those who attended learned a new way to prepare a certain type of wild game and 100% of those who attended learned something new from attending and would like to see the series hosted again.    

Other partners involved in the hosting of this series were: Kentucky Department of Fish and Wildlife, Mr. Field Hudnall, Mr. Chase Winiger Mr. Jim Prewitt, Mr. George Cummings, and Faul Family Farm.