Raising a family is difficult under the most promising of circumstances. Raising children with limited resources and time bring parents and grandparents new dilemmas to each struggling family’s table. In Madison County, guardians of these teens are finding themselves working several jobs to make ends meet, leaving the teenagers to fend for themselves and in some cases, younger siblings.  The concern is that these teenagers have no training in food security or preparation. Not having the proper nutrition education costs the family more money in prepared foods for snacks and “easy meals” that can be warmed in a microwave, also leaving youth with less nutritious choices.

The Richmond Teen Center is open Tuesday and Thursday from 2:30-6 pm when school is in session. They offer supervised physical activities as well as homework assistance and some life skills classes for teens ages 13-18 to bridge this family disconnect. This also provides the kids with a safe space to hang out. The Madison County Nutrition Education Program (NEP) Assistant Senior was asked to provide seven cooking instructed classes with an emphasis on healthy meal planning, shopping and preparation. It was decided that meeting every other Thursday would be best to keep things on schedule.

The first couple of meetings did not go well as the teens were adamant, they had already been taught how to cook healthy meals and were not receptive to outsiders. The NEP Assistant Senior persevered teaching them to cook pasta al dente so as not to overcook making it possible to reheat for edible leftovers. This proved the point showing the teens there was much to be learned. In the end, there were ten teenagers that graduated. They learned proper knife skills, correct food safety habits and hand washing, low-cost meal planning, and various cooking skills to execute delicious, nutritious, inexpensive meals for themselves and the ones they love. 100% adopted one or more new practices in food selection, 80% improved food safety, and 80% improved physical activity. All learned to cook pasta correctly without making a mess out of it.