Assessing the Use of Cooking Demonstrations on Healthy Eating Barriers in City Bus Riders

Abstract

People living in food-insecure households may experience access-related barriers to preparing and consuming fresh produce, such as high cost and limited local availability. Nutrition interventions that incorporate improved access play a decisive role in overcoming these barriers. The urban bus hub fresh produce market was developed to address food insecurity in Dayton, Ohio. Over four months, dietetic students from a four-year, private, mid-western university provided cooking demonstrations and recipe distribution nutrition interventions at the market. We used a quasi-experimental study design to determine the effectiveness of the cooking demonstration and recipe distribution intervention on access-related barriers at the urban bus hub fresh produce market. A ten-item quantitative questionnaire, on a Likert-type scale from 1-10, with 10 as a more favorable response, and four open-ended questions were administered once to each consented participant (N=33) to examine the recipe effectives and explore the access-related barriers. T-tests were used to examine barriers from the questionnaire and determine differences between participants who made the recipe and participants who did not make the recipe. Results of the t-test indicate no significant difference between those who made the recipe and those who did not make the recipe (p>0.05). Mean scores for affordability, acceptability, accommodation, availability, and accessibility on the then ten-item questionnaire were 7.83, 8.44, 9.19, 9.38, and 8.44, respectively. Thematic analysis results were used to examine the barriers from the open-ended questions further and revealed that affordability and time barriers were present in the priority population. Lack of money, job loss, and unemployment were identified as contributing to affordability barriers and transportation and time to shop, prepare, or cook produce, and to find mealtimes were identified as contributing to time barriers. Nutrition professionals should continue developing appropriate interventions for affordability and time barriers in convenient locations for participants to encourage fruit and vegetable consumption and to establish evidence-based practices. KEYWORDS: Cooking demonstrations; food insecurity; produce consumption barriers; nutrition intervention; food stand; recipe distribution; bus hub