Application of Cooking With a Chef for School Food Service Professionals

Since school nutrition cooks play a direct role in ordering, preparing, and serving food in schools, culinary nutrition education may be an effective way to facilitate menu changes to incorporate more vegetables, fruits, and whole grains into school meals for children. Cooking With a Chef, a hands-on, nutrition education program shown to improve menu planning, food purchasing, food preparation, and food consumption behaviors of participants from various populations, was adapted and delivered to 111 school nutrition workers in South Carolina. The analysis from pre- and postquestionnaires completed by participants revealed some changes in attitude, skills, and cooking methods.