Page Contents
Overview
Target Behavior: Healthy Eating, Food Insecurity/Food Assistance
Intervention Type: Direct Education
Intervention Reach and Adoption
Setting: Childcare, Community, Retail, School, Farmers Markets, Faith-Based Community, Food Pantries, Healthcare, Indian Tribal Organizations.
Target Audience: All
Race/Ethnicity: All
Intervention Components
Intervention Materials
- Cooking Matters for Parents – teaches parents with young children how to shop sensibly for and prepare healthy meals on a limited budget. This curriculum is also available in Spanish (as Cooking Matters para Padres).
- Cooking Matters for Adults – teaches how to prepare and shop sensibly for healthy meals on a limited budget. This curriculum is also available in Spanish (as Cooking Matters para Adultos).
- Cooking Matters for Families – teaches school-aged children (ages 8 to 12) and their parents or caregivers about healthy eating as a family and the importance of working together to plan and prepare healthy meals on a budget.
- Cooking Matters for Kids – engages kids ages 8 to 12 in learning about healthy eating and provides simple, nutritious recipes that children can prepare themselves.
- Cooking Matters for Teens – teaches teens how to make healthy food choices, meals and snacks for themselves, their families and friends.
- Cooking Matters for Child Care Professionals – teaches child care professionals about healthy meal preparation and creating a healthy food environment for the kids in their care.
Intervention Costs
Materials are only available to organizations that had signed, active partnership agreements with Cooking Matters to provide programs for the organizational fiscal year beginning July 1, 2022.
Evidence Summary
- Are more confident in their cooking abilities (10% increase).
- See fewer barriers to making healthy, affordable meals (11% decrease).
- Cook meals more often and make meals healthier and more budget-friendly.
- Are eating more fruit in the short-term (3 months). Over the long-term (6 months), they are eating more vegetables, including non-fried options and green salad.
- “Rarely” worried that food might run out each month, six months later. Before the course, families “sometimes” worried about this.
- Are 17% more confident in stretching their food dollars (including federal benefits like SNAP and WIC) due to the strategies they learned in Cooking Matters, like planning meals, shopping with a list and comparing unit prices.
Research information available at: https://cookingmatters.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/03/cm-course-impact-evaluation-brochure.pdf
Classification: Research-tested
Evaluation Indicators
Readiness and Capacity – Short Term (ST) | Changes – Medium Term (MT) | Effectiveness and Maintenance – Long Term (LT) | Population Results (R) | |
---|---|---|---|---|
Individual | ST1, ST2 | MT1, MT2 | LT1, LT2 | |
Environmental Settings | ||||
Sectors of Influence |
Evaluation Materials
Success Story
Cooking Alone…Together! SNAP-Ed in Massachusetts Reaches New Audiences by Moving Online:
Families in Colorado Shop and Eat Healthier:
https://snaped.fns.usda.gov/success-stories/families-colorado-shop-and-eat-healtheir
Empowering Denver Colleges Students to Thrive:
https://snaped.fns.usda.gov/library/success-stories/empowering-denver-college-students-thrive
Additional Information
Application to Cooking Matters partnership is closed.
Contact Person(s):
Cooking Matters
1030 15th St NW, Suite 1100W
Washington, DC 20005
Phone: 303-801-0328
Email: cmmiller@strength.org
*Updated as of August 23, 2023