Nourish Pilot & CoDesign Study

January 23, 2026 updated by: Case Western Reserve University
The purpose of the research study is to learn more about the best ways to teach cooking and food skills to adults, and how cooking classes may help reduce one's stress and food waste, as well as improve their diet.

Study Overview

Status

Completed

Conditions

Intervention / Treatment

Detailed Description

Currently, 12.8% of Americans experience food insecurity, and food insecurity is associated with elevated perceived stress. Food literacy is proficiency in food-related skills and knowledge, including food preparation and cooking skills, basic nutrition knowledge, and the ability to prevent food waste. Recent research conducted in Australia suggests that food literacy interventions are associated with improved food security. Traditionally food literacy interventions take a recipe-based approach to culinary nutrition and lack information about key components of food literacy, such as food storage and food waste reduction techniques. However, recent research by the PI contends that recipes may be difficult for food insecure individuals to implement at home, given the challenge of procuring ingredients, suggesting the need for a new approach. In addition, food insecure households face additional environmental challenges, such as owning fewer cooking utensils, compared to food secure households. Based on the Social Cognitive Theory, the Nourish intervention addresses these limitations by incorporating food waste reduction, food storage knowledge, and improvisational cooking skills (cooking with what you have on hand) into food literacy and culinary nutrition education, as well as providing key cooking utensils. Eventually, the study team plans to test the impact of the Nourish intervention on food literacy, perceived stress, diet quality and food security to determine if food literacy interventions can positively impact perceived stress, diet, and food security. The present pilot study will test the feasibility and acceptability of the Nourish intervention and corresponding evaluation, as well as provide participant feedback on the intervention.

Study Type

Interventional

Enrollment (Actual)

26

Phase

  • Not Applicable

Contacts and Locations

This section provides the contact details for those conducting the study, and information on where this study is being conducted.

Study Locations

  • United States
    • Ohio
      • Cleveland, Ohio, United States, 44118
        • Community recruitment

Participation Criteria

Researchers look for people who fit a certain description, called eligibility criteria. Some examples of these criteria are a person's general health condition or prior treatments.

Eligibility Criteria

Ages Eligible for Study

  • Adult
  • Older Adult

Accepts Healthy Volunteers

Yes

Description

Inclusion Criteria:

  • Age 18 and over
  • Ability to attend classes in person

Exclusion Criteria:

  • Non-English speaking

Study Plan

This section provides details of the study plan, including how the study is designed and what the study is measuring.

How is the study designed?

Design Details

  • Primary Purpose: Health Services Research
  • Allocation: Randomized
  • Interventional Model: Parallel Assignment
  • Masking: None (Open Label)

Arms and Interventions

Participant Group / Arm
Intervention / Treatment
Experimental: Immediate Treatment Group
Subjects first participate in 8 weekly cooking classes immediately after baseline data collection ends.
Behavioral: cooking and food skills intervention
Participants will attend a weekly in-person class with brief instructional video clips, hands-on cooking and tasting experiences. Participants will work individually and as part of small groups during instructional sessions. At the end of each class, participants will receive a grocery bundle and a kitchen gadget that serves both as an incentive and implementation support to promote improved cooking frequency and confidence. Participants will be asked to post photos of what they made with their groceries to an instant messaging software (GroupMe application) and be encouraged to engage with fellow classmates on GroupMe to encourage social support of cooking. The intervention ends after the 8, weekly classes conclude (8 weeks total intervention time)
Other Names:
  • Nourish
No Intervention: Delayed intervention control group
Subjects receive no intervention for 9 weeks, serving as the control group. Once all data collection is complete, the delayed intervention control group will receive the intervention (8 weekly cooking classes)

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure
Measure Description
Time Frame
Food Waste Volume
Time Frame: Change from Baseline to 10 weeks post-randomization
Food waste volume will be measured in grams using a study-provided food scale and waste log. Participants are asked to weigh discarded food and log the weight in a food waste tracking notebook for a period of 1 week prior to randomization at Baseline, and again for a period of 1 week at 10 weeks post-randomization. The outcome measure will use the difference in total volume of food waste between the two time points (post total food waste - pre total food waste).
Change from Baseline to 10 weeks post-randomization

Collaborators and Investigators

This is where you will find people and organizations involved with this study.

Sponsor

Case Western Reserve University

Collaborators

American University
Purdue University

Investigators

  • Principal Investigator: Melissa Prescott, PhD, Case Western Reserve University
  • Principal Investigator: Brenna Ellison, PhD, Purdue University

Study record dates

These dates track the progress of study record and summary results submissions to ClinicalTrials.gov. Study records and reported results are reviewed by the National Library of Medicine (NLM) to make sure they meet specific quality control standards before being posted on the public website.

Study Major Dates

Study Start (Actual)

July 25, 2024

Primary Completion (Actual)

December 17, 2024

Study Completion (Actual)

December 17, 2024

Study Registration Dates

First Submitted

April 26, 2024

First Submitted That Met QC Criteria

April 30, 2024

First Posted (Actual)

May 3, 2024

Study Record Updates

Last Update Posted (Actual)

February 10, 2026

Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria

January 23, 2026

Last Verified

January 1, 2026

More Information

Terms related to this study

Keywords

Additional Relevant MeSH Terms

Other Study ID Numbers

  • STUDY20231429
  • CA2115405 (Other Grant/Funding Number: National Science Foundation)

Drug and device information, study documents

Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated drug product

No

Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated device product

No

This information was retrieved directly from the website clinicaltrials.gov without any changes. If you have any requests to change, remove or update your study details, please contact register@clinicaltrials.gov. As soon as a change is implemented on clinicaltrials.gov, this will be updated automatically on our website as well.

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