Family and Community Nutrition

Celebrating Community, Family, and Food!

Welcome to our Nutrition, Food, & Wellness programs! Cornell Cooperative Extension of St. Lawrence  County offers free or low-cost educational workshops, and lots of useful information on food-related topics from food safety and nutrition to healthy eating on a limited budget. Check out our upcoming events, then give us a call!

What classes can I take?

For Families and Adults:

Classes are taught to groups at various community sites. Our Nutrition Educators continually strive to help you recognize the value of good food and nutrition and make food safety habit-forming! Workshops are usually 45-60 minutes long, but can be customized to meet community needs.

Overview of Programs:

Adulting 101: Workshops for young adults preparing to make shopping and food preparations choice for themselves.

$ensible Solutions:  Workshops for adults looking to make cost effective choices towards food shopping and meal prep.

Cooking with Littles:  Cooking workshops that get the whole family involved!

Older Adult Fitness: Fitness workshops in partnership with St. Lawrence County Office for the Aging.

Learn about the following topics through:

• Stretching food dollars
• Cooking enticing nutritious family meals
• Food safety
• Reading food labels
• General nutrition guidelines for better health

For Youth:

We offer a variety of interactive programming at area schools, libraries, community centers etc to create positive youth development experiences around trying new foods and developing healthy life skills. Classes and workshops are tailored to specific age and grade levels.

Overview of Programs:

Food Science Fun: Learn how to make a fruit and vegetable smoothie with a bicycle! Discover what is in that soft drink, fruit drink and glass of milk! Are we really what we eat? Let’s test our sense of taste. All this and much more in Food Science Fun.

Kids in the Kitchen: Hands-on nutrition and cooking workshops appropriate for youth ages 6-15. Youth learn how to prepare simple, healthy foods that they can make for themselves and for other family members at home. There is a food safety practice included in each lesson.

Teen Cuisine: A cooking workshop for grades 6 to 12 to help them increase their confidence, knowledge, and kitchen skills. By teaching teens how to make informed food and lifestyle choices, they develop important life skills to promote optimal health — both in the present and in the future.

Harvest of the Month/ Farm to School Programming: Nutrition Education promotes childhood health, growth, and intellectual development to enable all children to reach their full academic potential. Each workshop is designed specifically for the age group and grade level requested. Lessons are interactive and often include food demonstrations of featured vegetables and fruits (locally grown!).

Food, Fun, and Fitness: Focuses on lifetime fitness and healthy decisions. In this program, youth will learn about all aspects of wellness and leading a healthy lifestyle. Session activities will range from determining how much sugar is in various beverages, making healthy snacks, and learning fitness activities that are fun and easy.  Youth will set personal goals for a wellness that they’d like to complete.

Junior Iron Chef: In this healthy cooking program, youth will develop a culinary team and compete in the annual Junior Iron Chef contest. The Junior Iron Chef contest is a team contest for youth ages 12-18 with each team consisting of 3-5 youth. Teams are judged on kitchen skills, nutritious food choices, taste, plating/garnishing, and a short oral presentation. In this program, youth will learn all of these topics plus teamwork and communication skills in order to be a successful team. This program is intended for middle and high school youth ages 12-18). Anticipated Event for Spring 2025.

How do I get started?

Check out our events page or call our office at 315-379-9192 to find out more about upcoming classes that might be the best and most convenient for you!

Support for these workshops has been provided by Northern New York Community Foundation

Dr. D. Susan Badenhausen Legacy Fund 2023

Last updated April 26, 2024