Start Strong, a 4-week culinary nutrition education, obesity prevention program designed for rural family care providers in low-income areas of Minnesota, was initially an in-person training and recently adapted into a virtual version. Using a quasi-experimental design, this study examined within group and between group (in-person versus virtual) changes in culinary skill confidence and familiarity with food assistance programs after Start Strong participation. Additionally, we examined post-program participant experiences.. The in-person program (n=12, mean age 45 years, September 2019) took place at community locations. The virtual program (n=27, mean age 41 years, Fall 2021-Winter 2022) used online learning and videoconferencing. Following data collection pre- and post-program, we used t-tests to examine within-group changes after Start Strong participation, repeated measures analysis of variance tests to compare outcomes between the in-person and virtual implementations, and Fisher's exact test to compare post-survey outcomes. The in-person and virtual programs demonstrated similar improvements in cooking skill confidence and familiarity with food assistance programs. Compared to the virtual program, in-person participants reported significantly greater connection with other providers. This evaluation is relevant to addressing disparities in obesity prevention and provides an initial model for public health and community partnerships with ECE providers.
Keywords: Children; Extension; child care; evaluation; nutrition; obesity; virtual learning.