NJHKI’s Dr. Peggy Policastro and Alison Brown and NJHKI Ambassador Jenny Campbell presented at the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics’ FNCE 2022 about the Healthy Helpers virtual culinary literacy program. The Healthy Helpers was a school-based virtual intervention, supported by evidence-based practices of how virtual culinary literacy programs can improve vegetable intake and dietary behaviors in fourth and fifth-grade children. The presentation included actionable steps nutrition and dietetics professionals can use to inform future culinary literacy-based programs. Vegetable intakes among children remain below recommended levels despite numerous nutrition-education-based interventions. Research has shown that children’s vegetable intake may be better influenced through experiential learning opportunities and skill development in lieu of traditional knowledge-based classes. This presentation explored current home cooking trends and research connecting culinary literacy to dietary behaviors and methods to promote culinary literacy in children in a virtual setting.
Check out the Healthy Helpers videos in English: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLFBQqXFQtYt1CCWSraEHEBkoAwCyLFs5P and in Spanish: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLFBQqXFQtYt3j9J3y9vYMZFR73f4DrjTm
