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Objective
Choices around food selection and food preparation skills are critical components in creating healthy, affordable meals. Community-supported agriculture (CSA) provides a unique opportunity for targeted food education in cooking skills and safe food handling.
Use of Theory
Offering local, seasonal produce at a discount increased access to healthy foods (social-ecological model). The simple and quick recipe videos motivated and provided skill/instruction on how to prepare the raw ingredient for consumers to take action (social cognitive theory/self-efficacy).
Target Audience
SNAP benefited shoppers
Program Description
Farm to Families video recipe series aimed to increase awareness of locally grown produce and take the mystery out of preparing raw/whole produce to create family favorites. The video recipes were intended to motivate the SNAP shopper to take advantage of the CSA discounted food box and increase consumption of local fruits and vegetables with simple cooking methods.
Evaluation Methods
A Knowledge, Attitude, and Practice (KAP) questionnaire was designed to assess the acceptance of the print and video recipes and changes in SNAP shopper's food preparation skills.
Results
Fifty-six questionnaires were completed by SNAP shoppers viewing the video recipes. The recipes were well received, giving customers ideas on how to use the produce in the CSA produce box. Many of the foods were unfamiliar–kohlrabi, squashes, chard, kale. Participants shared that the recipes helped them learn about different produce grown in the area, the recipes were easy to follow, and the videos provided instructions to make it easy to prepare the produce in the CSA box. Eighty-three percent of responders agreed that they would try the recipe after viewing the video and 100% responded that information on how to store and freeze produce was easy to understand.
Conclusions
The Farm to Families video recipe series was well-received by SNAP shoppers and program partners. Survey responses demonstrate the effectiveness of the videos in helping the consumer learn how to prepare and store the local produce offered in the CSA produce box.
Funding
NIFA
Article info
Identification
Copyright
© 2022 Published by Elsevier Inc.
