The Healthy Habits melting pot culinary nutrition camp curriculum for adolescents was designed and delivered with support of undergraduate students in food technology and nutrition held in ten county locations in South Carolina. The aim was to determine the effectiveness of this hands-on camp in nutrition and cooking skill and confidence building with 207 camp participants.  Camp offered a social environment conducive to the transfer of knowledge and skills by interactive meal preparation, nutrition discussions and food tastings.  A significant change in the participant three cooking skills of saute, steam, stir-fry (p< 0.0001), and to bake (p=0.0106) was noted.  An increase from 46% to 71% was reported in overall nutrition knowledge of MyPlate.  A significant increase of confidence and motivation for making healthy eating choices, making an active effort toward healthy behavior change, and having positive feelings towards healthy foods item groupings was noted in the pre to post questionnaire scores. The undergraduate students also assisted with camp delivery at their local county camp site location and they collaborated in the data management providing for an academic related field experience.

Key words:  Nutrition education, Cooking, Culinary nutrition, cooking confidence