Twenty Taylor County youth attended the 3 day Super Star Chef cooking camp for kids ages 8 to 19. No previous cooking experience was required for the free program and participants learned to master a variety of cooking techniques including: chopping, dicing, blending, folding and whipping. They also discovered foods that are good fuel for their bodies and learned to decode food labels and identify if foods were safe to eat. Participates made homemade fresh salsa, fruity parfaits, veggie pizza and oven-baked calzones. As a result of the cooking camp, based on the data from the twenty respondents to the pre- and posttests the following knowledge was gained:

Overall, pre-post comparisons of participant responses to the assessment instrument show that the program enhanced participant understanding of the nutrition concepts covered in the program. The average total score on the test increased from 11.70 in the pretest to 14.30 in the posttest (out of a maximum of 15). The pre-posttest also included seven items that measured participants’ cooking self-efficacy. Responses to these seven items were summed to create a cooking self-efficacy score. Pre-post analysis showed that participants’ cooking self-efficacy increased from 24.85 in the pretest to 28.85 in the posttest (out of a maximum of 32).

The posttest also included eight self-assessment of learning gains items. These items asked the participants to indicate the extent to which they agreed or disagreed that they learned the concepts described in each statement. All the respondents (100%) agreed/strongly agreed that they learned about the amount of fruits and vegetables they should have on their plates; learned about how germs can be transferred to food; learned the correct way to hold a knife for cutting; learned about how to wash their hands to remove germs; learned how to read nutrition labels; learned about how to measure ingredients; and learned about how to read recipes. Also, all but one of the participants (about 92%) plan to eat more fruits and vegetables after participating in the program. Several parents commented on how much their child looked forward to each day of the camp and how excited they were to try the recipes and skills they learned with their families at home.