Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) Valley YMCA (through funding from the Katherine Matthies Foundation)
Funding Period:
2014-2017
Study Design:
Pre/post
Purpose:
This project was conducted as a subset of the CHOOSE project, with community settings serving as “portals” for offering healthful cooking classes to children. In recent decades, children have had fewer opportunities to learn to prepare healthful meals due to demographic shifts, family time constraints, availability of packaged and take-out foods, and a decline in home economics education. A recent review article suggests that cooking programs can positively influence children’s food-related preferences, attitudes, and behaviors. Training motivated youths or college students to serve as peer educators is a potentially effective strategy to teach children cooking skills, due to their potential to serve as socially relevant agents for change.
Further Study Details:
In 2016, we partnered with the Valley YMCA in Ansonia, CT on a pilot of cooking classes offered at its summer day camp. It included 6 weekly classes offered to 70 children ages 5 to 12 years (taught in small groups based on age) during the 10-week camp. Each class focused on making a healthful snack, beverage, salad or side dish. The foods were affordable and simple to prepare. We combined instruction by a lead chef/instructor during week 1, with subsequent instruction by college students trained to offer the classes. YMCA staff provided assistance and oversight. We evaluated the impact of the classes with a pre/post survey administered to the older children (age 8-12 years). We assessed program feasibility through facilitated discussions with the instructors and the day camp coordinator.
Findings:
The classes led to increased preferences for certain foods (particularly black beans and tomatoes) and increased self-efficacy in making healthful snacks and salads, measuring ingredients, trying new foods, and preparing meals at home.
Eligibility:
Children attending the 2016 Summer Day Camp at the Valley YMCA
Yale-Griffin Prevention Research Center