Author: Janet Mullins
Planning Unit: Dietetics and Human Nutrition
Major Program: Cook Together, Eat Together
Outcome: Long-Term Outcome
Making half your plate fruits and vegetables is one of the most potent ways Americans can eat a healthier diet. However, making this dietary change in the current food environment is challenging, especially in regard to vegetable consumption. In 2012, a proposal for a social marketing project to promote healthy, home cooked meals was developed for limited resource families with young children. Over the next five years, two pilot test waves were conducted. Iterative monitoring, evaluation, and revision were implemented. Program evaluations demonstrate that participants increase fruit and vegetable intake by 1 cup per day, or 20% of the recommended intake. In 2020, a peer-reviewed academic paper was published in a special food security issue of Translational Behavioral Medicine. In 2021, a cookbook to accompany the Extension program Cook Together, Eat Together was published. The program is now available throughout Kentucky and to other states. Cook Together, Eat Together will be presented at the 2022 National Extension Association of Family & Consumer Sciences meeting. The curriculum has been updated for use by Nutrition Education Program Assistants in Kentucky beginning in fall 2022.
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