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 available at no cost.
Evidence Summary
- More confident in their cooking abilities (10% increase).
- See fewer barriers to making healthy, affordable meals (11% decrease).
- Cooking meals more often, and making meals healthier and more budget-friendly.
- In the short-term (3 months), families are eating more fruit. Over the long-term (6 months), they are eating more vegetables, including non-fried options and green salad.
- Before the course, families “sometimes” worried that food might run out each month; six months later, they “rarely” worried about this.
- Families were 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://bestpractices.nokidhungry.org/sites/default/files/download-resource/Cooking%20Matters%20Course%20Impact%20Evaluation%20Executive%20Summary.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
Additional Information
Application to Cooking Matters partnership is currently open to organizations interested in curricula reaching adults, parents, families, and caregivers.
Contact Person(s):
Cooking Matters
1030 15th St NW, Suite 1100W
Washington, DC 20005
Phone: 800.969.4767
Email: cookingmatters@strength.org