Short-term evaluation of the Cyrenians six-week parent cooking programme

Abstract

Background: Cyrenians is a charity which supports people who have been excluded from work, family, home and communities. They offer support by various means including food education programmes. These programmes aim to improve cooking skills, knowledge, confidence, budgeting and reduce social isolation. Classes are accessible to different groups including parents. However, evaluation of classes lack consistent and thorough evaluation. There is limited data on the effectiveness of cooking classes for parents in Scotland. Aim: To identify whether a six-week pilot cooking class for parents in East Lothian improves cooking confidence, skills, food/nutrition-related knowledge and dietary behaviours. To qualitatively explore parents’ experiences of attending a six-week cooking class in East Lothian. Methods: Pre and post questionnaires were developed and distributed by Cyrenians, to collect qualitative and quantitative data on cooking confidence and skills. A post-questionnaire was developed by researchers to collect further data on cooking confidence, diet and knowledge. A semi-structured focus group was conducted to gather views and experiences of the participants attending the cooking class. Results: Data from the Cyrenians pre-evaluation was not valid due to printing errors. All participants rated their cooking skills as ‘excellent’ in the Cyrenians post-evaluations that were valid (n=5). All participants completed the researcher post-evaluation (n=6). The researcher’s post-evaluations identified improvements in cooking confidence, diet and knowledge. The participants expressed that they ate more fruit and vegetables since the beginning of the class. Thematic analysis of the focus group identified six themes; increase in fruit and vegetables, more meal preparation and using leftovers, increase in cooking skills and practices – confidence, more budgeting, cooking with children/stress and positive cooking class experiences. Conclusion: The Cyrenians parent cooking class showed successful changes in the areas of cooking practises, diet, budgeting and knowledge. Overall the participants enjoyed the class and recommended some changes. The focus group broadened the range of qualitative data collection within the study. Further longitudal follow-up evaluation would identify if these results have been sustained by the participants. Keywords: Cooking, Evaluation, Parents, Scotland, Health