Let’s Cook! Minnesota

1. Jill May, MEd*; Sara Van Offelen, MPH, RD*; WeiyangXie, MA; Betsy Johnson, MPH • Evaluation Results: • A preliminary evaluation was conducted through pre, post and six-month participant surveys; 141 participants completed all three surveys. Focus groups were conducted with community partners, volunteers, and staff. • Comparison of participant survey results demonstrated that all three programs, SGC, CM and SGE, showed significant improvement at post and six month follow-up in: • Increased confidence in planning, shopping, preparing a healthy meal from scratch • Increased consumption of fruits and vegetables • Making a grocery list more often • Cooking meals for family instead of buying already prepared foods • Additionally, significant results were demonstrated by the cooking-based efforts (Simply Good Cooking and Cooking Matters®) at post and six month follow-up. Significant improvement was shown for: • Increased consumption of dark colored vegetables, whole grains, and low-fat or fat-free dairy foods • Cooking meals at home more often • Participants engaging in at least 30 minutes of moderate physical activity daily • Increased snacking on fruits and vegetables • Analysis of the focus groups indicated: • Community partner agencies preferred cooking-based methods over traditional • Staff reported the cooking-based approach improved their visibility and energized their teaching • Partners observed that the cooking-based approach developed a sense of community among participants • While participants and volunteers liked the two cooking-based curricula equally, staff preferred the flexibility and ease of implementation of SGC. Let’s Cook! Minnesota • Program Objective: • Let’s Cook! Minnesota compared the feasibility and effectiveness of cooking-based education programs to a traditional nutrition education delivery model in rural communities. • Description: In 2007, the University of Minnesota Extension conducted focus groups (Brown & Marczak, 2007) whose findings indicated that adults served by the Simply Good Eating Program prefer hands-on experience in a social setting. The results led to the development of Simply Good Cooking (SGC), a nutrition education curriculum that teaches hands-on cooking skills as the foundation for cooking healthy family meals based on nutrient-rich foods. To evaluate program effectiveness, SGC and Cooking Matters® were compared to the Simply Good Eating curriculum. Cooking Matters® (CM) is a national program developed by Share Our Strength that is a chef-led cooking based nutrition education series. Simply Good Eating (SGE) is a knowledge and skill based curriculum that uses facilitation methods to deliver nutrition education to limited resource adults with children. • Methods: • For this study, the target audience was rural SNAP eligible adults with children. Participants were enrolled either in one program featuring cooking-based (SGC or CM) or knowledge-based (SGE) curriculum (comparison). Each participant was enrolled in a complete six-week education series in a small group facilitated by a Community Nutrition Educator (CNE). • During 2012 and 2013, 248 participants from three Minnesota regions (Grand Rapids, Brainerd, Moorhead) participated in this study. Comparing cooking-based nutrition education with traditional methods in rural communities • Lack of Confidence in Preparing Healthy Meals; pre, post, 6 mo. • Conclusion: • Cooking-based curricula were an effective method of conducting nutrition education. Notably, cooking-based curricula offered additional behavior outcomes in areas not observed in knowledge-based curriculum. No relapse in health promoting behaviors from post to six month follow-up was observed. Because much enthusiasm for cooking-based approaches was reported by staff, community partner agencies and participants, this approach is being expanded in the University of Minnesota Extension Simply Good Eating nutrition education program. • Frequency of Cooking Meals at Home; pre, post, 6 mo. “Having a cooking curriculum is awesome!” -Community Nutrition Educator “It’s not as hard to cook healthy as I thought.” -participant “It’s just as easy to make a healthy homemade meal as it is to make a non-healthy meal.” -participant Funded by USDA National Institute of Food and Agriculture, Rural Health & Safety Education Grant Program