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Institute of Epidemiology & Health Care

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CookKit - Cooking Kit for Kids

Development of a school and family-based nutrition intervention for cancer prevention in areas of high social deprivation (CookKit - Cooking Kit for Kids)

This CRUK-funded study aimed to assess attitudes and approaches to cooking and eating at home, and the potential to enhance engagement in healthy eating through a novel cooking skills intervention. We developed a manualised intervention (CookKit) to support the delivery of weekly cooking classes and support for low-income families to maintain healthy eating at home. Preliminary qualitative interviews were conducted with teachers and parent-child dyads from a range of primary schools in the UK to explore attitudes, barriers and facilitators for healthy eating and inform the development of COOKKIT. A single primary school then hosted COOKKIT and focus groups were conducted with participating pupils, face-to-face interviews with teaching staff, and telephone interviews with parents following completion. Results from this preliminary piloting of COOKKIT suggest that it provides engaging and easy to follow in-school resources for children and school staff with take-home kits facilitating continued engagement and reinforcing lessons learned in the home environment. Importantly, participants highlighted that the combination of healthy eating information, applied practical skills and low costs could support families to continue following the COOKKIT advice beyond the intervention, suggesting further evaluation of COOKKIT is warranted.