Clark County Family and Consumer Sciences Extension Agent collaborated with the counselors and FRC at Baker Intermediate School to offer the Recipes for Life Program to 415 fifth-grade students over three days in December of 2024. The Clark County Horticulture, ANR, and 4-H agents also assisted in the implementation of this program. Since all public-school 5^th graders attend Baker, the students were divided into three groups based on their homerooms. Each group, consisting of about 137 students, was then bused on their respective day to the Extension office. Over the 4 hours the students were at the office, they learned important food preparation, kitchen and food safety skills. The FCS agent secured 15-20 volunteers per day that worked with students in a hands-on educational setting to complete 4 recipes throughout the day, practicing the skills they had been taught. Ten to twelve high school beta club students also volunteered each day, washing dishes and plating the finished food for the students to taste what they had prepared. Each student was sent home with the tools and recipe book to practice at home what they learned during the Recipes for Life program.

A pre-test/ post­test evaluation was conducted to determine learning outcomes. As a result of the program, nearly 98% of respondents knew the correct amount of time to wash their hands.  Over 92% of respondents reported they knew the correct way to hold a knife on the post-test,  a 55%  increase from the pretest answers. Additionally, 85% of students reported they knew how to safely tell when meat was cooked (by using a meat thermometer), whereas only 37% answered correctly on the pre-test. Several students were overheard telling volunteers this was an awesome field trip" and many comments on social media posts indicated that the students 'loved it.'  One parent even reported that her son informed her that she 'probably cut her finger that one time because you cut wrong" and demonstrated how to correctly use a knife.