With society and family structures becoming more complicated, youth have fewer opportunities to learn life skills that once were handed down by mothers and fathers in their home. A national survey conducted by Eckrich and ConAgra discovered that 40% of families eat three or fewer meals together and 10% never eat dinner together at all. Planning and preparing family meals may be been lost, but those skills are critical for healthy future generations. 

Green County 4-H recognized the importance of teaching youth basic food preparation and planning skills in equipping youth with the ability to make healthy choices. Green County 4-H offers individual nutrition programs that youth can complete on their own schedule, conducts day camps where youth work with an Extension 4-H professional and a summer multi-day intensive camp developing advanced skills. The Green County Cooperative Extension Service and 4-H reached over 400 youth through nutrition-based programs.  

From pre and posttest surveys of the multi-day summer camp, youth are learning life skills previously taught in the homes. Of the participants, all youth demonstrated that they could dice vegetables safely and could explain how to remove germs from their hands. Green County's family and youth will be healthier because of these learned sanitary skills.  During the flu season, the local schools did not close for sickness like many of the surrounding school districts due in part to proper hand washing techniques learned through 4-H programs.

While learning to measure ingredients and read recipes, 100% of the youth could also compare calories and cabs through the interpretation of food labels. The biggest gain in knowledge related to the amount of physical activity needed in a child’s life; posttest showed an increase of 80% in the numbers of youth who could explain the proper amounts of activity needed in order to be healthier. As a result of the program, 100% of the youth said they would eat more fruits and vegetables.