This school year, LSU AgCenter Area Nutrition & Community Health Agent Layne Langley worked with West Feliciana 4-H’ers to offer the Mission Nutrition Project Club. In an earlier news article Langley, shared information about the Teen Cuisine Curriculum she was using monthly with the project club members. The second half of the school year and Mission Nutrition Club Meetings proved to be just as exciting as the first half. The 4-H’ers continued learning key concepts about nutrition, food preparation and cooking, food safety, and physical activity.

In January, the 4-H’ers participated in Find the Fat session. They used the Go, Slow, Whoa method to categorize foods and beverages that contain healthy and less healthy sources of fat. The 4-H’ers also compared the saturated fat content of fast food with homemade versions. The group enjoyed participating in the Food Safety Case Studies. During the physical activity part of the session, the 4-H’ers recognized opportunities to reduce screen time and ways to increase physical activity. The 4-H’ers worked in teams to make Fruit Chewy Cookies.

The 4-H’ers learned to “Watch Out for Added Sugars” during the February project club meeting. They participated in a food jingle activity where they shared popular brand slogans and jingles. This jingle activity led the way to discuss food advertisements and empty calories. The 4-H’ers worked in teams and rotated through different Added Sugars Stations evaluating the amount of added sugars and identifying the names of added sugars in popular teen foods and beverages. The 4-H’ers were excited to take part in the Smoothie Challenge. Again, they worked in teams to concoct a fruit smoothie. Langley provided several fruits and juices for the 4-H’ers to use. Afterwards, the 4-H’ers created a presentation about their smoothie. Each team gave their smoothie presentation as the 4-H’ers sampled the smoothie. The youth scored all smoothies and prizes were awarded to the winning team. The 4-H’ers also identified ways to be active in short periods of time throughout the day.

During the March Mission Nutrition Project Club Meeting, the 4-H’ers participated in the Snack Attack session. They examined nutrition facts labels on snack foods to identify foods that are nutrient dense and low in added sugars, saturated fat, and sodium. Using food packages, the 4-H’ers choose snacks from snack food packaging labels then determined the amount of added sugars, saturated fats, and sodium for one serving of each snack. During the Food Safety Review, the 4-H’ers identified food safety practices to prevent foodborne illness.The next activity included brainstorming and sharing physical activities that could be done with all generations in families and communities. The 4-H’ers enjoyed the Salad Factory part of the meeting. They were provided with three different kinds of lettuce, four fruits and vegetables that are not necessarily traditional salad items such as berries and mandarin oranges, and four different toppings, including seeds, nuts, cheese, and dried fruit. They were asked to select a certain number of lettuce, fruits and vegetables, and toppings for their salad. Langley provided a few salad dressings for the 4-H’ers to add. This Salad Factory was a huge hit!

April was the last Mission Nutrition Club Meeting. Langley arranged for the project club to meet at the West Feliciana High School Pro Start Lab & Kitchen. Special thanks to Mrs. Deleana Buffalo, WFHS ProStart Teacher, for welcoming the 4-H’ers to her facility. The 4-H’ers worked in pairs to create “dump cakes”. With the help of Mrs. Buffalo, a computer program spun a wheel and picked the cake mix and then picked the fruit filling for each team to prepare. As the cakes were baking, the 4-H’ers developed a short presentation about their “dump cake”. After the presentations, the 4-H’ers sampled the cakes. Once all the cakes were tasted, the 4-H’ers scored each cake and Langley awarded the winning team. At the end of the session, the 4-H’ers completed a program survey and every 4-H’er went home with a cookbook donated by Susie Buchmann.

Langley would also like to extend a big thank you to the parents who assisted with the project club meetings. Hats off to Melissa Brouillette, Shannon Norris, Loy Ann McCune, and Amanda Navarro.

For more information about the 4-H Mission Nutrition Project Club, contact Layne Langley at 225-635-3614 or at lalangley@agcenter.lsu.edu