The ¶¶Òõ̽̽ Extension Expanded Foods and Nutrition Education Program and the Stafford Technical Center in Rutland, Vermont, teamed up to provide nutrition education to high school students through a self-paced, six-part course that featured lessons on planning, shopping, and budgeting for healthy meals along with cooking techniques and physical activity.
Relevance
The Stafford Technical Center in Rutland, Vermont, houses a Culinary Arts Program to provide food service workforce skills and training for high school students. The program focuses, in part, on cooking techniques and safety, meal planning, and nutrition, all of which are skills that the ¶¶Òõ̽̽ Extension Expanded Foods and Nutrition Education Program (EFNEP) provides in its COVID-response distance education course, Eat Smart, Move More.
Response
Kate Bilinski, Rutland County EFNEP nutrition educator, partnered with the technical center's culinary arts instructors to provide education in cooking techniques and safety, meal planning, and nutrition by enrolling culinary students in the Eat Smart, Move More course. The self-paced course includes six interactive, online video lessons with tips for planning, shopping, and budgeting for healthy meals plus recipe tutorials. It also has a significant physical activity component, essential to support teens in sustaining a healthy lifestyle. Participants were able to view each of the lessons at their own pace. The EFNEP nutrition educator joined the students and teacher in their virtual classroom to answer questions and explore content in more depth. Each student also completed a pre- and post-behavior questionnaire.
Results
As a result of the course, 88% of the youths improved the quality of their diets, 65% improved in physical activity practices, and 59% improved in safe food handling. Additionally, students were asked to provide feedback about their experience with the course. One participant noted, "I have learned a lot about how to eat the right foods and choosing healthy ingredients. I like how the lessons taught us many ways to get over the challenges of choosing the right foods to eat, as everyone has a different situation. Maybe they don't have the money to buy the right foods, or they simply do not have enough time. The lessons covered getting over those well, so there was something for everyone." Another student commented, "I have learned that fruits and vegetables' colors are very related to the type of nutrients they provide, which is really interesting. I like that the video lessons were short and simple and easy to learn." Others commented on the easy-to-follow format of the self-paced course, the informative videos, important lessons on budgeting, and the access to resources shown in the videos.
Public Value Statement
As teens become more independent, they are making many food decisions on their own. But those decisions may not always be the healthiest ones for their body's growth and development as well as their future overall well-being. Learning at an early age how to make healthy food choices and about the importance of being more physically active every day can lead to a lifetime of good health and healthy eating habits.