YouthBuild North Central offers students its first-ever cooking class
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ELKINS -- YouthBuild North Central doesn't set limits on how much it prepares its students for the future, officials said.
Helping each individual in the program earn a high school equivalency certificate and learn numerous job skills is a big part of what the non-profit organization is all about. But YouthBuild officials also feel it's necessary that students take some life skills with them when they graduate the program.
Recently YouthBuild invited Lorrayne Corley to its facility, where she taught a class about cooking, purchasing food, and eating healthy.
"The kids wanted to do a class on eating healthy and how to choose the right foods, so I called Lorrayne and asked her if she would come because of all the experience she has," YouthBuild Education Coordinator Terri Weiford told The Inter-Mountain. "She talked to them about counting carbs, how to read food labels, and how to shop and get the most for your dollar."
Corley, now retired, is the former director of food service for Randolph County Schools. She also spent many years teaching a food services class at the Randolph County Vocational Technical Center.
Weiford said Corley showed the YouthBuild students how to make several quick and easy meals and then performed multiple cooking demonstrations for them.
"The students cooked, they helped her (Corley) cook, and ate everything she made," Weiford said. "She showed them how to cook chicken quesadillas really simply with just some rotisserie chicken and whatever kind of cheese that they like. She used the flour tortillas with it and just fried them up in the skillet. The kids really loved them."
Corley also made the students frittatas, which Weiford said is similar to a quiche but is made with eggs.
"The kids could basically put anything they wanted in the frittatas," Weiford said. "She put tomatoes, mushrooms, onions, peppers and a lot of other different things in them. She then baked them in the oven and the kids enjoyed eating them up."
Weiford said the experience went so well with Corley that YouthBuild has already scheduled her to come back to teach another class.
"The kids had a tremendous time and learned a great deal with Lorrayne," Weiford said. "They really enjoyed her being here so she is going to come back and talk to them about using measurements and some more cooking demonstrations."
Weiford deemed the first-ever cooking class at YouthBuild a total success and plans to have several more throughout the year.
"This was something for the kids to do that gave them an opportunity to learn several different things," Weiford said. "It gave them some ideas of what to do and how to do it if someday they are out on their own and they need to shop and cook for themselves."
YouthBuild North Central West Virginia is sponsored by the Randolph County Housing Authority. It provides vocational and educational training designed to give young adults the tools they need to get a good job and keep it.
Through YouthBuild, motivated young people aged 16 to 24 commit to a full-time program to earn their high school equivalency certificate, learn marketable job skills, and develop important leadership skills, all while earning a paycheck.
For more information, call YouthBuild at 304-637-9008.