The Pendleton County Family and Consumer Science Extension Agent in collaboration with six administrators and eight teachers from the Pendleton County School District, both the North and South Family Resource Directors and the local health department offered the Recipe for Life program to 217 fifth grade students.  40 Adult volunteers and 40 high school student volunteers worked with students in a hands-on-educational setting to teach important life skill that strengthen the Assets as identified by the Search Institute.  

A pretest/posttest evaluation was conducted to determine learning outcomes.  As a result of the program, students gained the following knowledge and skills during the program: proper handwashing, knife safety, kitchen safety, cross contamination safety, how to prepare and read a recipe, math skills to double or half a recipe, how to correctly measure dry and wet ingredients, time management skill for order of preparing recipes for a meal, manners and MyPlate.

At the completion of the program students reported:

Nutrition knowledge improved from 10.41in prestest to 14.11 in posttest out of a score of 17.  Similarly, cooking self-efficacy increased to 28.05 of a score of 32 and attitude toward cooking improved from 29.84 in the pretest to 31.28 in the posttest, out of a maximum of 35. 

• About 90% of the students strongly agreed/agreed that they plan to eat more fruits. 
• About 81% strongly agreed/agreed that they plan to eat more vegetables. 
• About 92% strongly agreed/agreed that they plan to try new foods. 
• About 90% strongly agreed/agreed that they plan to help prepare food at home 

A follow-up evaluation with parents of students attending the program was unable to be administered this year because of schools closing.  We will follow up with them at the beginning of sixth grade.