Teaching Nutrition

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Teaching Nutrition Cooking Skills to Youth

• Jennifer Bowen
• Extension Agent/4-H
• Prince Edward County
• jebowen1_at_vt.edu

Patsy Pelland Extension Agent/FCS Prince Edward
County ppelland_at_vt.edu
Ruth Wallace Extension Agent/4-H Buckingham
County ruwallac_at_vt.edu
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Why are these skills important?

• Research shows that
• Eating habits are adopted early in life and carry
  through to adulthood
• Children are more likely to try new foods if
  involved in preparing them
• Cooking skills and cooking literacy are declining
  with each generation
• Only 40 of youth ages 10 17 can cook a
  spaghetti dinner
• The lack of cooking skills may be contributing to
  the nations growing obesity rate

Research from the University of North Texas, the
Agricultural Research Service Childrens
Nutrition Research Center, and SDA
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Working with ages 5-8 (k-3)

• Nuts about Nutrition
• 3rd Grade Nutrition Program
• Delightful Dinners
• Food Fundamentals

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Nuts about Nutrition

• 3 week series
• Week 1
• Learn about the pyramid serving sizes
• Identify which foods go in which group
• Focus on a different food group each day
• Week 2
• Identify which foods go in which group
• How to read food labels
• Week 3
• Food Safety
• Grocery Store Field Trip

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Nuts About Nutrition

• Simple Food Preparation each day including
• English Muffin Pizzas
• Making Pretzels
• Ants on a Log
• Frozen Yogurt Sundays
• GORP
• Banana Splits
• Homemade Stromboli
• Sunshine Shakes

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3rd Grade nutrition program

• Four easy lessons
• 45 minutes each
• hands-on activities
• Lesson 1 My Pyramid
• Lesson 2 Physical Activity
• Lesson 3 Fruits and Vegetables
• Lesson 4 Sugar Content of Drinks
• Monthly Activity Calendar

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Delightful Dinners

• A Parent/Child cooking class
• Instruction
• My Pyramid
• Table Setting
• Manners
• Hand Washing

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Delightful Dinners

• Cooking
• Kid-friendly recipes (chicken fingers, pizza,
  pasta salad, etc.)
• Basic skills
• Measuring liquid and dry ingredients
• Combining ingredients
• Basic food safety
• Following directions
• Parents join children after work
• Family Meal Time
• Children set table and serve family members

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Food FundamentalsIn School Kindergarten program

• Session 1 Introduction to the Food Guide
  Pyramid
• Children learn basics of MyPyramid and practice
  identifying in
• which section foods belong
• Session 2 Fruits and Vegetables Day
• Children make a class chart of fruits and
  vegetables. Throughout the week the children are
  encouraged to eat fruits and veggies. The
• children play a game identifying fruits and
  vegetables from taste.

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• Session 3 How Our Diet Fits Into the Pyramid
• Children will draw pictures of the foods they ate
  for breakfast, lunch or dinner. They place
  these foods where they belong on a large paper
  pyramid.
• Session 4 Review of the Pyramid
• Food Pyramid Hunt

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Working with ages 9-13

• After-School Programs
• Fun With Foods
• Beef It Up
• Project NIFTY
• 4-H After-School (Middle School Unit)
• Summer Programs
• Simply Scrumptious
• Fit Fun in the Sun

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Fun With Foods

• Focus on learning basic cooking skills
• Measuring dry and liquid ingredients
• Measuring shortening, peanut butter
• Sautéing, browning, caramelizing
• Folding, mixing, combining
• Chopping, dicing
• Using a microwave, blender, food thermometer
• Kneading

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Fun With Foods

• Focus on Learning Basic Life Skills
• Learning to read and follow directions
• Working together
• Sharing
• Cleaning up after oneself
• Time and resource management

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Fun With Foods

• Focus on Food Safety
• Handling raw meat
• Cooking with raw eggs
• Appropriate cooking temperatures for meats
  (cooking meat until done)
• Safety around knives, stovetop, grills, etc.

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Fun With Foods

• Focus on Nutrition
• Identifying the food group each major ingredient
  comes from
• Identifying nutritional value of each of these
  major ingredients
• Planning what other dishes could be served to
  complete the meal

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Beef it Up

• Similar to Fun With Foods, but emphasizing beef
  dishes
• Focus on
• Cuts of meat
• Various cooking methods
• Which cooking methods best suit which cuts
• Food safety
• Nutrition
• Cooking skills and life skills

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4-H After-School

• Part of Structured After-School Program at Middle
  School
• Lesson 1 - Food Safety Cooking
• Lesson 2 Vitamins, Minerals, and
  Phytonutrients Made Kabobs
• Lesson 3 - Eggs and Protein Made Omelets
• Lesson 4 Calcium Made Sunshine Shakes and
  Peanut Butter Crackers dipped in Chocolate

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Project Nifty (Nutrition, self Image, Fitness
tools for Youth)

• How do nutrition, self image, and fitness all
  contribute to being healthy?
• Day 1 My Pyramid Make Yogurt Sundaes
• Day 2 Label Reading Make Cinnamon Snack Mix
• Day 3 Smart Image Make Pizza Crackers
• Day 4 Smart Activities Make Deviled Eggs

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Fit Fun in the Sun

• Focus on Benefits of Physical Activity,
  Nutrition, and Cooking
• Lesson 1 What is Physical Activity? Benefits
  of Physical Activity
• Lesson 2 My Pyramid
• Lesson 3 Cooking Skills
• Lesson 4 Bag Lunches, Food Safety on the Go,
  Well Balanced Diet
• Lesson 5 Fast Food, Fat Sugar Contents of
  Foods, Serving Sizes

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Fit Fun in the sun

• Games Crafts
• Made Pizza, Blackberry or Peach Cobbler, tacos
  (in teams of 4-6 youth with an older teen or
  adult helper)

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Simply scrumptious

• Targets academics in addition to cooking and
  nutrition
• Nutrition Skills
• Review of My Pyramid
• Reading labels
• Menu preparation 
• Food Preparation Skills
• Reading a recipe and following directions
• Doubling/halving a recipe
• Learning proper cooking techniques
• Learning safe food handling practices

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Whats Next for Us?

• Cooking with Cloverbuds
• Advanced skills workshops
• Effective evaluations of knowledge and life
  skills gains

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Teaching Nutrition and Cooking Skills to youth

• Lessons can be stand alone or as part of a unit
• The hands-on approach is best
• When teaching cooking skills, the MOST IMPORTANT
  lesson is on how to read a recipe and follow it!
• Kids will learn better when taught the skills and
  then turned loose to use those skills in the
  recipe (with supervision of course)

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Virginia Cooperative Extension Curriculum
Resources

• Family Nutrition Program (FNP) lessons
• For low-income youth only A FNP educator may
  be able to come to your location to teach youth
  or may train you to use the curriculum
• Healthy Weights for Healthy Kids
• Nourishing Children with Books
• Childcare Provider Kits on Grains and Physical
  Activity
• Suppers Made Simple
• Stepping Up to the Plate
• Computer based curriculum for ages 9-13

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Teaching Nutrition and Cooking Skills to youth

• Group Discussion
• Please share your experiences with after-school
  programs in this area.
• What challenges/triumphs have you encountered
  teaching nutrition and/or cooking skills?
• Do you have additional ideas/comments to share?

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Thank you!