Children participating in cooking classes gain confidence in their abilities to prepare food. If children are to make informed, healthy, food ingredient and cooking method choices, they need to be equipped with these necessary skills, as well as with nutrition competence. Extension programs that incorporate nutrition and hands-on cooking can…

The growing trend in home food preservation raises concerns about whether the resulting food products will be safe to eat. The increased public demand for food preservation information led to the development of the comprehensive food preservation program, Preserve the Taste of Summer (PTTS). PTTS is a comprehensive hybrid food preservation program…

This article reports results from a questionnaire that assessed the frequency and type of nutrition questions asked at emergency food programs to determine if Extension professionals need to increase direct outreach efforts. Emergency food program workers (n = 460) were recruited via mail to complete a self-administered survey. More than one-third…

Summer 4-H camps present an untapped opportunity for advancement of mission mandates. The project reported here immersed campers in healthy living experiential learning. The goal was to improve self-efficacy and health behaviors related to nutrition and physical activity. Data was collected from enrolled campers through multiple survey tools. A…

The Empowering Older Adults with Assistive Technology to Shop, Cook and Eat curriculum was designed to provide education about concepts of empowerment and assistive technology for grocery shopping, preparing food, and eating. The curriculum included examples and hands-on demonstrations of assistive technology devices for grocery shopping, food…

Rates of type 2 diabetes are increasing nationally and in New Mexico, particularly in ethnic minorities. A key self-care area with challenging barriers is healthy eating. The New Mexico Cooperative Extension Service conducts diabetes cooking schools statewide together with community health providers. The study reported here determined if this…

Experiential cooking classes for low-income adults can help improve healthy nutrition behaviors. However, nutrition educators and Extension professionals can face challenges in successful implementation of these programs such as difficulties recruiting and retaining participants. Drawing upon lessons learned from a cooking intervention with…

Delivering nutrition education using the Internet could allow educators to reach larger audiences at lower cost. Low-income adults living in a rural community participated in focus groups to examine their interest in, experience with, and motivators to accessing nutrition education online. This audience described limited motivation in seeking…

Little research has been conducted to examine factors leading to adoption and implementation of nutrition education curricula. Data from two Web-based surveys (n = 313) and 27 interviews were used to explore how Diffusion of Innovations' perceived attributes contributed to adoption and implementation of Cooking with Kids (CWK) food and nutrition…

Video--once complex and expensive to create with high distribution costs--has become more affordable and highly accessible in addition to being a powerful teaching tool. Self-produced videos are one way educators can connect with a growing number of on-line learners. The authors describe a pilot project in which a series of video clips were…

Teens in limited-resource communities face challenges to healthy eating. Many youths lack food preparation skills and have limited access to ingredients needed to prepare healthy foods at home. University of Maryland Extension offered healthy food preparation lessons to teen participants of a popular weekly electronic gaming program in a Baltimore…

The Cooking with a Chef a culinary nutrition education series teams a chef and nutrition educator during cooking sessions with parents. Pilot program results were shared in the "Journal of Extension" in 2006. This formative evaluation presents data collected through focus groups and individual interviews examining program implementation,…

Planning youth and family programming in the 21st century is daunting given family members' busy schedules. This is even more challenging when planning programs in rural areas, where there are vast distances between communities. This article discusses a research and educational outreach project that uses best practices in program development…