WOLFE CHOW- Families Cooking Together

The Nutrition Education Assistant teamed up with Wolfe County 4-H and Wolfe County High and Middle School Family Resource and Youth Service Center to do a cook at home –family program, during COVID 19 while in person programming was limited.   To add more interest to the program, we decided to use slow-cooker recipes.  Recipes were chosen from the current Nutrition Education list.  Additionally, with the help of the Agriculture Extension Regional Specialist for Food and Nutrition, Southeastern Kentucky, a few new recipes for the slow cooker were adapted to comply with the standards of the Nutrition Education Program.   Inspired by our school name we called the program “Wolfe Chow”.

Each week a kit was compiled containing a Nutrition Education Recipe, one of the Healthy Choices for Every Body lessons, a nutrition education participation incentive, and the foods required to prepare the week’s recipe.  Participants came by the extension office to sign out these kits.  A demonstration and lesson for the week was conducted via face book.  Participants posted photos of their prepared dishes, and made comments or asked questions via face book or by messenger.  Beginning and ending surveys were also submitted.    Our cook at home teams were composed of an adult parent or guardian and a teen

Among the positive outcomes of this program: One of our team’s parents reported “This is the first time that my daughter has been willing to cook with me, she really looks forward to seeing what recipes and ingredients are in the bag, and can’t wait to try them”.  All the families that began the program, completed the program.  Finally adult participants in the program showed a positive change of 73 percent in the consumption of fruits, a positive change of 64 percent in the consumption of vegetables and 64 percent had a positive change in the consumption of proteins.  Team work of Wolfe County Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, The Wolfe County 4-H Program and Wolfe County High and Middle School Family Resource and Youth Service Center, had once again shown that combining the resources of the 3 entities could result in a more successful program for all involved.