Enhancing Culinary Skills to Increase Acceptability of Local Foods

Objective School Nutrition Professionals (SNPs) can influence diet quality and local food systems by developing new recipes served to children participating in Federal school meal programs. This pilot project's objective is to enhance culinary skills of food preparers, thereby promoting acceptability of local food products in the state of Louisiana. Description In 2021, the Louisiana Department of Education received a Team Nutrition Training Grant to support understanding, developing, and using standardized recipes within school meal programs. Improving the culinary skills of SNPs is critical to implementing newly developed recipes focusing on local foods. Culinary competence in knife and measuring skills will enhance SNPs confidence level resulting in improved job performance and student acceptance of new menu items. Student taste testing is critical to engaging staff in menu development, thereby increasing awareness of Farm to School initiatives. Evaluation We recruited 96 SNPs from twenty Louisiana parishes to participate in a one-day culinary training. Participants prepared newly developed recipes as part of the training, each of which included at least one locally grown/produced item. Pre/post-training evaluations about knife skills, measuring skills, food presentation, how closely recipes are followed and questions regarding use of local produce were included. How recipes reflect cultural and regional preferences and the likelihood of students’ willingness to try new recipes were also important. Conclusions and Implications Participants (39%) indicated Louisiana foods were served in their cafeterias and 92% believed the recipes reflected cultural and regional preferences of students. Approximately 83% of training attendees agreed that it is easy to encourage students to try local products. Pre/post training skill-based evaluations indicated competency in knife and measuring skills increased from 19% to 60% and 30% to 68%, respectively. The likelihood that program participants follow recipe instructions increased slightly. These one-day hands-on culinary trainings are cost-effective, efficient, fun, and will lead to consistent quality and quantity school meals while engaging with students about promoting local foods and acknowledging their nutrient contribution. Funding Year 2021. This project was funded using U.S. Department of Agriculture grant funds. School Nutrition Professionals (SNPs) can influence diet quality and local food systems by developing new recipes served to children participating in Federal school meal programs. This pilot project's objective is to enhance culinary skills of food preparers, thereby promoting acceptability of local food products in the state of Louisiana. In 2021, the Louisiana Department of Education received a Team Nutrition Training Grant to support understanding, developing, and using standardized recipes within school meal programs. Improving the culinary skills of SNPs is critical to implementing newly developed recipes focusing on local foods. Culinary competence in knife and measuring skills will enhance SNPs confidence level resulting in improved job performance and student acceptance of new menu items. Student taste testing is critical to engaging staff in menu development, thereby increasing awareness of Farm to School initiatives. We recruited 96 SNPs from twenty Louisiana parishes to participate in a one-day culinary training. Participants prepared newly developed recipes as part of the training, each of which included at least one locally grown/produced item. Pre/post-training evaluations about knife skills, measuring skills, food presentation, how closely recipes are followed and questions regarding use of local produce were included. How recipes reflect cultural and regional preferences and the likelihood of students’ willingness to try new recipes were also important. Participants (39%) indicated Louisiana foods were served in their cafeterias and 92% believed the recipes reflected cultural and regional preferences of students. Approximately 83% of training attendees agreed that it is easy to encourage students to try local products. Pre/post training skill-based evaluations indicated competency in knife and measuring skills increased from 19% to 60% and 30% to 68%, respectively. The likelihood that program participants follow recipe instructions increased slightly. These one-day hands-on culinary trainings are cost-effective, efficient, fun, and will lead to consistent quality and quantity school meals while engaging with students about promoting local foods and acknowledging their nutrient contribution.