The Cooking Together for Family Meals program is a hands-on cooking program that focuses upon increasing vegetable consumption by increasing familiarity and appreciation of vegetables. The project is in year one of program and evaluation development.

Concerns about childhood obesity have intensified efforts to develop educational strategies that will help children, youth, and families to adopt healthful eating behaviors and active lifestyles. Research suggests that eating family meals may enhance the health and well-being of adolescents and that involvement in preparing food is related to more nutrient-rich eating patterns among adolescents. The Cooking Together for Families Meals program fosters the improvement of cooking skills, and vegetable familiarity and appreciation. The program aims to increase family capacity for cooking family meals.

In the first year of funding, program and evaluation meetings and training were held. Pilot sessions of the Cooking Together for Family Meals (CTFM) program were completed in Cayuga, Onondaga and Tompkins counties. A logic model was developed to help frame program development and evaluation. In the first year of Cooking Together for Family Meals, staff discussions and interviews, and participant Most Significant Change stories and post-program short questionnaires were collected to inform future program development.

CCE Onondaga County: End of Class satisfaction surveys and feedback gathered using the Most Significant Change Technique process indicated that: 1) all participants enjoyed the program; 2) recipes were very well received with all families making 1 or more class recipes at home as a family; 3) family communication around meal planning and thinking about adding more and different vegetables had increased; 4) families increased confidence in ability to modify recipes given both in the CTFM series as well as at home; and 5) all families requested additional cooking classes.
CCE-Cayuga County: Surveys conducted at the end of the last class showed participants had: 1) learned new cooking skills; 2) had prepared at least 3 CTFM recipes together at home; and 3) were eating more vegetables and more variety of vegetables at home. There was strong support for continuing the program with the suggestion that additional classes be offered to them after this session. All families completed the program.
CCE-Tompkins County: In surveys conducted after each class ( using Cooking Up Fun’s “About Today’s Session” surveys), CTFM participants reported: 1) they increased their cooking skills; 2) parents recognized that their children were now more competent in the kitchen; 3) all families reported preparing the CTFM recipes at home;. and 4) participants reported trying new foods & food combination as a result of this class, and were more open to trying new foods.

Smith-Lever 3(d)

CCE-Tompkins