Jasmine Jones

Situation: Vance County is a rural area and ranked 97th out of 100th in health ranking in North Carolina the population of Vance County is between 10,000-15,000 people and 24.1% make up the youth that are 18 and below. According to the county health rankings 25% of families are suffering from food insecurities. They do not have reliable access to a sufficient quantity of affordable, nutritious food. They are not able to get the proper nutritional needs and are not being active daily increasing the obesity rate amongst the youth.

Response: To help improve Vance County health rate among the youth, NC Cooperative Extension Program has joined with four different sites. The four sites are 4H, Boys and Girls Club, YMCA, and Aycock Recreation Center and the ages varied from 5-15. In the program the curriculum taught is “Kids in the Kitchen,” EFNEP (Expanded Food and Nutrition Education Program). Each site has one week with the program where a pre/post test is taken to see where the child stands on making healthy choices. Seven different lessons are taught which are kitchen safety, my plate, fruits, vegetables, whole grains, diary, and protein. With each lesson a healthy snack is made and proper cooking skills are taught. Also this program is about keeping children active and with each lesson a fun physical activity is done to emphasize how important it is to be active daily.

Evaluation: At the beginning of the week children take a pre-evaluation to test their knowledge on My Plate and physical activity. Then at the end of the week they take the same test to see what they have learned through out the week. They also participate in physical activity to give them game ideas that could be played on their own, which can contribute to their hour a day of physical activity

Result: The children from each site gain knowledge on kitchen safety such as, how to use knives properly, oven safety, and how to prevent cross contamination. They also gain great knowledge on the five different food groups (Myplate) and that it is important to get all five on each plate to obtain all the nutrients their body needs to grow and be healthy. The younger groups grade k-5th were able to help their peers identify what food belongs to what group on “My Plate.” The older group grades 5th-8th after making the healthy snacks most children said “ I am going to make this at home!” One student from the Aycock Recreation Center said, “I made the Fruit pies at home and I packed them for lunch they were good!” From the site of Boys and Girls club one student said, “ I asked my mom can you buy 1% milk instead of 2% milk and she said yes”. This program also opened up the children’s horizons on different foods. Out of all the sites visited at least 5 people never had black beans until the lesson on protein was taught. Some children never had raw carrots or seen a whole pineapple cut in front of them. This program opened the students up to new things. The children were also given a cookbook with recipes that were used during the lesson and more recipes that could be made at home with adult supervision. They increased their physical activity for the day by doing the activities in the lesson.