Cooking and Menu Planning Confidence of Children Participating in a Cooking Camp

Childhood obesity has been steadily increasing in recent decades. This study was conducted at cooking camp to analyze the cooking and menu planning self-efficacy of children and to determine if these skills could influence healthier eating habits. Four surveys were used to evaluate the participants. The Let\u27s Eat Healthy Questionnaire observed significant increases in MyPlate and food group knowledge (p-valueCooking Skills and Food and Nutrition Skills Questionnaire reported significant increases in the ability to sautŽ (p-value=0.0026) and how to stir fry (p-value=0.0015), and significant increases in agreement for actions like limiting fat intake, limiting sugar intake, and eating more fiber (p-valueConfidence and Motivation Questionnaire reported significant increases in the confidence ranking for preparing healthy snacks (p-valueMenu Planning Questionnaire revealed a significant decrease in agreement with the statement that planning meals could increase vegetable intake (p=0.008) and a non-significant decrease for fruit intake ((p=1.000). For participants that completely agreed that planning meals could increase fruit and vegetable intakes, it was estimated that fruit servings would increase by roughly 2.8 (pre-questionnaire) to 2.9 (post-questionnaire) servings per day, and vegetable servings would increase from 2.7 (pre-questionnaire) to 2.8 (post-questionnaire) servings per day. Significant increases in confidence to plan a meal, meals for a day, and meals for a week were observed (p=0.0010,