Comparison of Common Threads Cooking and Nutrition Education Program in Elementary and Middle School Students
Authors: Edens Neile K. , Folkens Stephanie , Sharma Sonika , Wojtowicz Allison 
Published: November 2023

A goal of many childhood cooking and nutrition education programs is to increase exposure to, liking, and consumption of fruits and vegetables. It has been shown that very young (preschool) children are most responsive to interventions designed to increase fruit and vegetable liking. However, the effects of age and/or previous nutrition education in older children or in the context of an evaluation of a national community‐based program are unclear. Common Threads Cooking Skills and World Cuisine (CSWC) program has been reported to significantly increase vegetable liking and consumption in elementary and middle school students. The objective of the current program evaluation was to compare efficacy of a basic version of CSWC targeted at students in grades 3–5 who had not had previous cooking and nutrition education and an advanced version of CSWC (ACSWC) offered to students in grades 6–8 and to younger students who had completed another Common Threads cooking and nutrition course. We hypothesized that the program would increase vegetable outcome scores more in younger students than older students. In the 2015–16 school year, a sample of 41 elementary and middle‐schools receiving Common Threads programs in Chicago, Miami, and Los Angeles were randomly selected to participate in the annual student outcome survey. At least 80% of the students in these schools qualified for free or reduced price lunch. Students (n=719) were selected by their schools to participate in CSWC (n=497) or ACSWC (n=222) after‐school programs taught by chef‐instructors and parental consent was obtained. Each course delivered 20 hours of instruction over the course of a semester. Weekly lessons consisted of an introduction to world cuisines, fundamentals of nutrition, cooking skills, and hands‐on meal preparation in the school kitchen. Student outcomes were assessed by pre and post survey during the first and last class of the course. Survey items were combined into summated scales which were analyzed for internal validity and only accepted if Cronbach's alpha > 0.7. The distribution of participant responses to each item or scale in CSWC was compared to that of ACSWC with chi‐square test (SAS version 9.4, SAS Institute, Inc., Cary, NC, 2013). Results are presented as percentage of students with positive responses. ACSWC and CSWC had slightly different ethnic makeup; participants described themselves as Hispanic (38 vs 30%; ACSWC vs. CSWC), Black (19% vs. 32), White (14% vs. 13%), Multiracial (12% vs. 10), and Asian (10% vs. 4%). More participants in ACSWC were age 11 or older than in CSWC (62% vs. 13%). At baseline, significantly more participants in ACSWC than in CSWC had been exposed to six target vegetables (56 vs 39%), had high liking scores for vegetables (34 vs 32%), and had consumed vegetables at least once the day before (58 vs 48%). In contrast, participating in ACSWC increased vegetable outcome scores in a smaller proportion of students than CSWC: exposure scores increased in 16 vs. 30% of students (ACSWC vs. CSWC), liking scores increased in 6 vs. 14%, and consumption scores increased in 7 vs. 13%. These results suggest that younger students and those who have not received previous instruction benefit more from participating in experiential cooking and nutrition education.

Support or Funding Information

Supported by the Walmart Foundation.