Cooking for Kids: Culinary Training for School Nutrition Professionals Reduces Use of Convenience Foods Without Negatively Impacting Entree, Grain or Fruit Consumption

Abstract

The 2010 Healthy Hunger-Free Kids Act changed requirements for school meal nutrition, but created implementation barriers for schools including lack of kitchen infrastructure, lack of staff time and culinary skills to prepare meals, and concerns that students would not be accepting of new foods. Cooking for Kids, developed under the principles of the Community Readiness Model, utilizes professional chefs to teach essential culinary skills and on-site consultations to address menu planning related practices specific to a school district. The objectives of this study were to determine if Cooking for Kids culinary training affected 1) availability of scratch-prepared foods in school meals, 2) the extent to which marketing strategies were implemented at post-intervention and 3) students’ meal component consumption before and after training. A meal component consumption analysis was conducted in spring 2014 (681 matched trays) and fall 2016 (537 matched trays) in three pilot schools. Personal interviews were conducted with the Child Nutrition Director (CND) at each school to evaluate changes in the use of convenience foods from pre- to post-intervention and to determine the extent to which schools had incorporated marketing strategies at post-intervention. Schools used fewer highly processed (convenience) foods for entrees and offered more salad bars. There was no negative impact on entrée consumption (p= 0.878), an increase in grain (p=0.011) and fruit (p? 0.00) meal components and a decrease in vegetable consumption (p? 0.00). If schools focus on preparing food from scratch, students’ consumption of some components of the school meals may improve. Further use of marketing strategies, especially for vegetables, may be beneficial. The Cooking for Kids project is funded by the Oklahoma State Department of Education in Child Nutrition Services through USDA Food and Nutrition Services.