Tailoring and Evaluating a Culinary and Nutrition Curriculum for College Students: The College Cooking Connection

This study focuses on the development and evaluation of a tailored culinary nutrition education pilot program targeting the diet quality and cooking self-efficacy of university students. This program, titled the College Cooking Connection (CCC), was informed by community-based participatory research (CBPR), social cognitive theory (SCT), and evidence-based curricula. Moreover, the CCC curriculum was preemptively evaluated by experts for perceived feasibility and acceptability in a college student population. Success of learner objectives and perceived change in skills and knowledge were assessed using post-lesson evaluations and surveys. Clarity and feasibility of lesson objectives and content were supported by expert reviewers, and most undergraduate participants accurately completed lesson evaluations. Furthermore, a majority of undergraduates reported a perceived improvement in culinary/nutrition skills and knowledge following completion of CCC. The greatest perceived increase in knowledge following completion of CCC was in the category of nutrition and mental health, while undergraduates found lesson topics related to cooking skills and budgeting to be the most valuable. The CCC contributes novel curriculum development methodology to the existing body of research targeting undergraduates’ dietary behaviors, while highlighting the feasibility and efficacy of a community-tailored approach to undergraduate health programming.