Pilot Evaluation of Youth Chef Academy (YCA)

This project examined the effectiveness of Youth Chef Academy (YCA), a classroom-based experiential culinary and nutrition literacy curriculum for middle-school students. The primary study hypothesis was that students assigned to YCA would demonstrate greater improvement in F/V and whole grain consumption compared to students in the control group. Eight classrooms in eight public K-8 schools participated in the project. Classrooms were assigned to intervention or control condition in a non-randomized manner. YCA was delivered by project staff to all of the students in the four intervention classrooms. Students completed a survey to assess primary and secondary outcomes at baseline, six-week curriculum completion, and at twelve-week curriculum completion (YCA extended twelve-week curriculum cohort).