According to the American Heart Association teaching youth how to prepare their own food will give them a skill they can use for a lifetime and will help to build confidence. Youth who can prepare foods are also more likely to eat a healthier diet as adults.  To address the growing concern about children not knowing how to prepare food safely led to the development of this program. The Floyd County Extension Staff worked together as a team to plan and implement a three-day youth cooking camp for ages 9-14.  We had 17 participants with 10 girls and 7 boys. No previous cooking experience was required for the free program and participants learned to master a variety of cooking techniques. The 3-day program consisted of knife skills, food safety, measuring skills, nutrition education, grilling, growing your own herbs, honey tasting, and crafts and games hosted at the Floyd County Extension Office. Participants even got to try out our new smoothie bike. Surveys from the program indicated that 100 percent of the participants learned food safety and practices, how to follow instructions, how to cook various recipes and worked in a team/group to accomplish a task or goal.  After the program, a parent stated that their child was more involved with cooking at home and gained more independence. One of our male youth participants stated 5 months later he still enjoys helping his parents cook and learning new recipes.  He even said he picked Cooking for his 4-H project this year.