Benefits of learning to cook as a teenager is a skill one can use throughout their lifetime. In the past few years, society has gotten away from teaching younger generations this skill set, due to prepackaged foods, fast food, and overly busy lifestyles. This is why the 4H Agent, Agriculture Agent, FCS Agent, and program assistant partnered with the Spencer County High School FCS Teacher to provide  cooking and nutrition classes.

Once a month, the Extension Office would plan and teach a cooking and nutrition lesson that would include a SNAP Education recipe,  MyPlate information, and cooking instruction (hand washing, knife skills, measuring skills, cooking and baking directions). Each lesson would be taught to two different classes, a total of 40 sophomores and juniors. Examples of recipes are breakfast burritos, MyPlate casserole with ground turkey, and healthy everyday snacks.

The Benefits of learning how to cook are: cost savings in a household’s food budget, choosing healthier meals that have higher nutritional value, learning to read and execute a recipe from start to finish, and foster relationships with family and friends by sitting down and having dinner together. All of this, in turn, will have a long term positive effect on one’s health, food choices, and culinary skills.

The FCS teacher reported that students are more invested in the foods they eat since taking the class, that they are volunteering to cook meals at home, and are more interested in where their food is coming from. She also details that students are excited about the FCS program again and the number of students taking the course is up by 15%, as well as more students are switching pathways to enroll in foods and culinary courses.

During these lessons the FCS Agent provided nutrition education (MyPlate, portion sizes, nutrition labels) ; the 4H agent covered hand washing, knife skills, and the benefits of tasting all foods;  while the Agriculture agent covered converting measurements and education on where and how food is produced.