and Promotion. Rookie Cooking Camp also includes basic knife skills for safety and technique in the kitchen, food safety for proper food storage and cleaning in the kitchen, meal planning, shopping, and implementation.

Participants create a meal wish list on the first day of camp, often tweaking popular choices into healthier versions of our favorite meals. The students are responsible for preparing lunch each day, a task that builds their confidence in reading recipes and in their kitchen skills. It is very rewarding to sit down to a meal that they have prepared. The camp also includes field trips to grocery stores or local meat processing plants and other lessons on etiquette and table manners, the value of which cannot be overlooked. Young people are taught how to properly set a table and how to put their cell phones away and enjoy the engagement of conversation with others. For the camp's finale, participants prepare a four-course meal together for their families.

in reading recipes and in their kitchen skills. It is very rewarding to sit down to a meal that they have prepared. The camp also includes field trips to grocery stores or local meat processing plants and other lessons on etiquette and table manners, the value of which cannot be overlooked. Young people are taught how to properly set a table and how to put their cell phones away and enjoy the engagement of conversation with others. For the camp's finale, participants prepare a

four-course meal together for their families.

In order to reach Kentucky communities in need of nutrition and wellness education, Rookie Cooking Camps are planned during spring and fall breaks and through the summer months. "We want kids to have something constructive and fun to do while they're at home," says Gidgett Sweazy, SNAP-Ed Nutrition Program coordinator.

The camp has also been adapted to serve other age groups

including elementary-aged students and adults. “We had a group of young ladies that just didn’t have good cooking or meal planning skills and they really wanted to improve the nutrition of their family.” Sweazy says. “The program core remained the same, and it was a wonderful experience to help these ladies learn more about nutrition and healthy food preparation to care for their families.”

The Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program Education (SNAP-Ed) is a federally funded grant program that supports evidence-based nutrition education and obesity prevention interventions and projects for persons eligible for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP)—formerly food stamps—through complementary direct education, multi-level interventions, and community and public health approaches to improve nutrition. This program is supported in part by the USDA Food and Nutrition Service (FNS) and National Institute of Food and Agriculture (NIFA).