Recipient Organization
UNIVERSITY OF FLORIDA
G022 MCCARTY HALL
GAINESVILLE,FL 32611
Performing Department
Food Science and Human Nutrition
Non Technical Summary
Food binds us as humans as it represents our identity, our diversity, and our socio-economic status. Thus, understanding our human history is inexorably associated with understanding our choices for food. In the context of human interaction, the process of preparing food expands communication, strengthens self-efficacy, facilitates diversity exchange, and reduces the anxiety of consuming adequate nutrition at a low cost. In the United States (US), cooking is an art primarily transferred from our family members, but that is changing with the food industry and social media taking a significant role in the past decade. Thus, many individuals, especially college students, lack basic cooking skills.Even though college students lack basic cooking skills, the food trend of this population is to consume sustainable, ethnically diverse foods. Diets, though, remain poor among this population as they tend to consume high fat/high sodium foods and low amounts of fruits and vegetables. This is poor nutrition is seen among those college students who are considered food insecure. According to a recent systematic review, 42% of college students are considered food insecure. Thus, to improve diet quality among college students there is a critical need to strengthen and expand their attitudes, skills and self-confidence to prepare ethnically diverse, nutritious meals on a budget.The overall goal of this proposal is to support cultural diversity, food security, and adequate nutrition among college students through a culinary program delivered by peers. Peer-training is an efficacious learning strategy in college populations. Currently, we are piloting this technique through peer-led plant-based culinary workshops. Two undergraduate students, who have a background in culinary arts, have developed the lesson plans for each workshop that has been validated and piloted among faculty members (n=3). These workshops are offered twice per month for 4 months for 3 hours to only undergraduate and graduate college students on University of Florida's campus. Participants, who attend the first workshop of the month, are undergraduate and graduate college students of varying food security statuses. The participants, who attend the second workshop, are undergraduate and graduate college students of low food security status as this workshop is advertised at University of Florida's Field & Fork food pantry. Regardless if a participant attends the first or second workshop, the information presented is the same. In the workshops, participants learn how to prepare diverse and affordable dishes using ingredients from the Field and Fork food pantry, the Field and Fork campus garden and local farms and grocery stores.Each month of these workshops there is a different cultural theme, in which the peer-leaders discuss basic cooking skills, provide an overview of the countries, which includes the main ingredients and the health benefits of those ingredients, and then highlights the three recipes that the participants will prepare. The peer-leaders highlight that they have used the same ingredients for each recipe to minimize food waste and discuss how to use all parts of the produce (e.g. pickling rinds) and the important of composting if there are parts that are inedible (e.g. onion skins). After this discussion takes place, participants are placed in groups of 3, in which each group member prepares one recipe, and towards the end of the workshop, everyone consumes these prepared recipes. While participants are consuming the recipes they prepare, they complete an evaluation form. At the end of each workshop, participants take the produce and any other food product that is left in reusable containers. From the first 2 workshops that we have completed, the evaluation feedback has been positive in that the participants are learning more about consuming sustainable, nutritious foods and improving their culinary skills. Prior to and post these workshops, participants will be provided with a survey to assess their culinary abilities, skills, confidence and dietary behaviors. Additionally, participants will be provided with a link to access a 'virtual' cookbook. In which the peer-leaders will prepare these recipes virtually and discuss all the content that was mentioned within these workshops. Overall, through this method, the participants will gain essential culinary skills, learn how to cook nutritious foods on a budget, and appreciate the cultural significance of each dish.The continued support of these peer-led workshops will support our efforts to improve cultural knowledge, cooking skills and consumption of nutritious foods on a budget and build strong partnerships and a responsive and inclusive community among University of Florida students.
Animal Health Component
40%
Research Effort Categories
Basic
10%
Applied
40%
Developmental
50%
Goals / Objectives
The overall goal of this proposal is to support cultural diversity, food security, and adequate nutrition among college students through a culinary program delivered by peers.
Project Methods
Currently, we are piloting this technique through peer-led plant-based culinary workshops. Two undergraduate students, who have a background in culinary arts, have developed the lesson plans for each workshop that has been validated and piloted among faculty members (n=3). These workshops are offered twice per month for 4 months for 3 hours to only undergraduate and graduate college students on University of Florida's campus. Participants, who attend the first workshop of the month, are undergraduate and graduate college students of varying food security statuses. The participants, who attend the second workshop, are undergraduate and graduate college students of low food security status as this workshop is advertised at University of Florida's Field & Fork food pantry. Regardless if a participant attends the first or second workshop, the information presented is the same. In the workshops, participants learn how to prepare diverse and affordable dishes using ingredients from the Field and Fork food pantry, the Field and Fork campus garden and local farms and grocery stores.Each month of these workshops there is a different cultural theme, in which the peer-leaders discuss basic cooking skills, provide an overview of the countries, which includes the main ingredients and the health benefits of those ingredients, and then highlights the three recipes that the participants will prepare. The peer-leaders highlight that they have used the same ingredients for each recipe to minimize food waste and discuss how to use all parts of the produce (e.g. pickling rinds) and the important of composting if there are parts that are inedible (e.g. onion skins). After this discussion takes place, participants are placed in groups of 3, in which each group member prepares one recipe, and towards the end of the workshop, everyone consumes these prepared recipes. While participants are consuming the recipes they prepare, they complete an evaluation form. At the end of each workshop, participants take the produce and any other food product that is left in reusable containers. From the first 2 workshops that we have completed, the evaluation feedback has been positive in that the participants are learning more about consuming sustainable, nutritious foods and improving their culinary skills. Prior to and post these workshops, participants will be provided with a survey to assess their culinary abilities, skills, confidence and dietary behaviors. Additionally, participants will be provided with a link to access a 'virtual' cookbook. In which the peer-leaders will prepare these recipes virtually and discuss all the content that was mentioned within these workshops. Overall, through this method, the participants will gain essential culinary skills, learn how to cook nutritious foods on a budget, and appreciate the cultural significance of each dish.Analysis of Data. At least one of the undergraduate students, who will be trained by Jeanette, will analyze participants' change in cultural knowledge and cooking skills, attitudes, and self-confidence of preparing foods on a budget using SPSS v25. Differences will be detected using a one-way ANOVA with a Tukey post-hoc analysis. Additionally, relationships between demographics, diet quality through the Eating America's Table questionnaire, intent to change dietary behaviors and the data from the participants' cultural knowledge and cooking skills, attitudes, and self-confidence will be assessed through multiple regression analyses. All protocols using human subjects in research have been approved by the Institutional Review Board at UF.