Don't call them future homemakers of America anymore.
These days, students who join the 60-year-old Future Homemakers of America organization are crafting towering wedding cakes, catering state functions, creating intricate fashion designs and learning to run businesses.
"There's still a focus on home and family, but also getting the kids trained on industry and standards," said Linda Olsen, a home economics teacher and FHA-HERO adviser at Folsom High School. "It's not just cooking and sewing. It's teaching them to go out and be the designer, go out and be the chefs, go out and run a business."
FHA (which eventually added Home Economics Related Occupations to the name) used to be geared toward girls who would learn how to cook family meals and keep house, said Elayne Rapping, an American Studies professor at the University of Buffalo.
Boys did FFA, girls did FHA.
But then, Rapping said, "It went out of style in the '60s because it had a sexist, domestic sort of bent to it."
Thanks in part to a more modern approach – and the soaring popularity of television cooking shows – the organization is more popular now.
Ten Sacramento area students recently won trophies at a California Association FHA-HERO competition in Fresno.
Jasmine Kaufman, a junior at New San Juan High School, won second place – and a $3,000 scholarship to Johnson & Wales University – in the culinary arts display senior division for her presentation of nine appetizers that represented seven Asian countries.
She wants to be a pastry chef at a hotel and one day own a wedding cake shop. She likes the competitions.
"It's a chance to show you're good at something, to show what you can do," she said.
Culinary arts is a focus of the curriculum at New San Juan High School, and students who join FHA-HERO get extra time and experience in the field.
They've learned knife skills, garnishing and all manner of food preparation and cooking, said Sandi Coulter, culinary arts teacher and FHA-HERO adviser.
Students know how to prepare menus, how to figure out the costs of individual portions, and the profit margins of each dish they prepare.
"It's more industry- focused," Coulter said. "These are things you wouldn't necessarily have talked about in your class 25 years ago."
Chef Guy Fieri, who won the second season of Food Network's "The Next Food Network Star," judges ProStart, a culinary competition in which many FHA-HERO students compete each year.
He also owns five restaurants in Northern California, including two in the Sacramento area.
The culinary skills and knowledge that programs like FHA-HERO teach students are inspiring, he said.
"Home economics it's not – professional culinary training it is," he said.
Call The Bee's Niesha Lofing, (916) 321-1270.
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