We are so proud to announce that Vetri Community Partnership’s CEO, Maddy Booth, has co-authored an article which was selected to be published in the Journal of Nutritional Science. In this article, researchers studied Vetri Cooking Lab’s impact on kids’ behaviors and attitudes toward fruits, vegetables, and whole grains.
Previous research has shown that nutrition education and cooking skills interventions can lead to improved food knowledge and confidence, which are positively correlated with healthier dietary behaviors. Our study builds on these findings by examining the correlation between increased cooking confidence and knowledge with changes in dietary consumption behaviors among children. Specifically, in the current study, we aimed to determine if children enrolled in a culinary skills program promoting healthy food choices (i.e. VCL) experienced subsequent changes in: (1) knowledge and confidence; (2) vegetable preferences; and (3) dietary consumption behaviors.
The findings demonstrated that programs integrating practical cooking skills education along with nutrition, food, and cooking education can improve confidence and knowledge about healthy food choices amongst children driving an overall improvement in children’s eating habits.
This is a tremendous achievement for Vetri Community Partnership, all those who attend our programs, and truly goes to reinforce that our hands-on cooking and nutrition education programs are working to change attitudes and behaviors.
