Journal Club 6: Cooking Matters for Adults Improves Food Resource Management & Self-Confidence Among Low-Income Participants

(Recorded 3/12/18)

Speaker: Jennifer Pooler, MPP, IMPAQ International, LLC

Cooking Matters is a 6-week course that teaches low-income families to cook healthy meals on a budget and reaches more than 100,000 people per year. In 2014-2015, Share Our Strength commissioned the National Cooking Matters Impact Evaluation to assess longer-term outcomes associated with participation in the program. This webinar will describe the quasi-experimental study design, including its limitations and challenges, as well as 6-month post-course outcomes related to food resource management and healthy food preparation.

Learning Objectives

Gain an understanding of the Cooking Matters nutrition education program.

Describe benefits and limitations of using an intercept recruitment strategy to evaluate a nutrition education program.

Describe positive improvements in food resource management and healthy food preparation practices resulting from participation in the Cooking Matters program.

Jennifer Pooler, MPP, IMPAQ International, LLC

Ms. Pooler is a Senior Research Associate at IMPAQ International with more than 10 years of experience conducting social science research and program evaluation. She has designed and implemented mixed methods studies for a wide range of federal and private clients, including Share our Strength, AARP Foundation, the HHS Maternal and Child Health Bureau, and the USDA Food and Nutrition Service. Ms. Pooler seeks to inform food assistance and nutrition program policy by providing actionable evidence for addressing food insecurity and social risk factors.