Miami County Jr Chef

Many youth today are two generations removed from households where healthy food is prepared from fresh ingredients. This makes food preparation and nutrition education for today’s youth important. In order for youth to make informed, healthy decisions about their food, they need to have skills and knowledge about nutrition and cooking. Research has found youth are most interested in learning cooking and food safety skills through interactive, fun cooking demonstrations.

The county extension office offered two three-hour cooking sessions for youth ages 6 through 12. Youth spent time during the session in discussions centered around the USDA’s MyPlate nutrition guidelines and Four Steps of Food Safety (clean, separate, cook, and chill). Participants then moved through five stations where they practiced the steps of following a recipe, demonstrated food and kitchen safety practices, learned basic knife skills, identified common and unique kitchen equipment, interactively engaged in hands-on food preparation, and sampled prepared foods.