Cooking Matters program guides adults to better meals

STARKVILLE, Miss. -- Adults across the state are learning about cooking and nutrition through some hands-on training provided by the Mississippi State University Extension Service.

Cooking Matters for Adults is a six-week program that helps adults eat better and make food budgets last longer. It launched in 2018 as an educational complement to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program – Education, or SNAP-Ed, and the Expanded Food and Nutrition Education Program, or EFNEP. It is continuing despite recent federal budget cuts.

Samantha Willcutt, an Extension registered dietitian, is responsible for overseeing regional programs. She said the Cooking Matters program has the mission of teaching nutrition to community members.

“Studies show that hands-on interactions and actually working with food prove to be more fulfilling to participants who are learning about nutrition,” Willcutt said. “Cooking Matters fills that need.”

MSU Extension offers this program in 42 counties across the state. Local Extension professionals offer the class as frequently as needed to meet the demands of community members.

Program organizers examined the local programs and highlighted three for exemplary success. The partners awarded for their Cooking Matters for Adults programs are the Discovery Center at the Starkville Oktibbeha School District, MadCAAP in Canton and Fairland Center in Tutwiler.

“We wanted to honor those partners in the community who took the program to the next level,” Willcutt said. “These programs are connected with the community, help us at Extension connect to the community and allow us to offer the program to their clientele.”

Cooking Matters is a six-week program that meets once a week for two hours. The first hour is spent on nutrition lessons, covering topics such as food groups, whole grains and shopping on a budget. For the second part of the lesson, participants prepare dishes in line with the focus of that week’s class.

“If the lesson was on fruit and vegetables, the foods they make will be pretty heavy on those ingredients,” she said. “We also work on new skills such as knife skills and baking techniques.”

Tequila Stallings is a parent educator assistant at the Discovery Center at the Starkville Oktibbeha School District. She assists with each Cooking Matters for Adults class offered at the center.

“I love the class,” Stallings said. “It teaches you so many things, like how to cook without salt. You can always learn some things.”

Stallings is largely responsible for recruiting each new class. She has organized two to three classes each year with usually about 12 participants each time.

“We send out emails to let people know we’re having the class, and I tell them it is going to be exciting,” Stallings said. “At the first four classes, participants work with the ingredients to cook a main dish.

“At the fifth class, they do a tour learning how to bargain shop, and the sixth class is graduation, and the class members get incentives for participating in the program,” she said.

Stephanie Allsup, an Extension nutrition educator working from Lowndes County, said with some participants, it is almost like a light bulb goes off during a lesson and participants will try food a different way and realize they like it.

“We ask if they prepared it differently, what did they add or change. They usually added more vegetables or fruit,” Allsup said. “When they make a healthier choice from what they would have used in the past, we can see that they did pick up something.”

Drew Cole, interim director of the MSU Office of Nutrition Education, described the impact this program has had on participants.

“The Cooking Matters course has always been about building confidence in the kitchen and grocery shopping on a budget,” Cole said. “It’s also about the community being built over the six weeks of the course.

“After that last lesson, I’ve seen participants walk away with a new friend group, remaining in contact long after the class ends,” he said.

Amanda Williams, an Extension associate in the Office of Nutrition Education, said since 2018, 298 Cooking Matters for Adults classes have reached 2,977 individuals, with 2,603 completing the lessons.

Data indicates the program is successful in changing eating habits.

“Surveys show 87% reported an increase in healthy food preparation and 66% reported an increase in how often they eat fruits and vegetables,” Williams said. “We have seen 57% report an increase in cooking confidence.”

About half of participants report an increase in food budgeting habits, and 71% said they have better food skills and strategies for making healthy food choices or exhibiting healthy food behaviors.

Cooking Matters for Adults was developed by the nonprofit Share Our Strength in partnership with Walmart and the University of Florida and is now under the leadership of The Food Trust. Funding for MSU Extension to offer this program was provided by USDA’s SNAP-Ed and EFNEP.