Cooking with Dad

The Todd County Nutrition Education Program paraprofessional partnered with the Todd County Children, Youth Families at Risk agent to work with a group of Dads and children to work on Healthy Choices Cooking and Kitchen skills.  The families learned how to serve more nutritious meals, to keep foods safe, and to utilize local food resources effectively.   Dad’s learned to let children get involved with food choices, and kitchen duties to help promote better eating habits. 100% of NEP /CYFAR families made an improvement in one or more nutrition practice.  

83% of NEP graduate families thought more often about healthy food choices when deciding what to feed their families, planned meals in advance and followed recommended practices of not allowing meat and dairy foods to sit out for more than two hours.

Families learned to plan meals ahead of time and use a grocery list to guide food selections.  Children were introduced to Grocery Store Bingo, to find healthy choices while at the grocery store.  50% improvement was shown in food price comparison behavior.  67% used “Nutrition Facts” on food labels to make food choices. 67% of participants showed improvement in two or more food resource management practices.

Dads learned working with children in the kitchen created positive family time and memories.  They learned the importance of eating healthy, while preparing low fat recipes. Worked on helping children with kitchens skills and made memories that will last a lifetime.