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Part of the SNAP-Ed Strategies & Interventions Toolkit.* Food Smarts is a direct education intervention that is designed to support healthy behavior change in the areas of healthy eating, food safety, cooking, and food resource management. Food Smarts is a flexible, learner-centered, multi-session nutrition and cooking program with several available lesson plans to fit the needs of a variety of settings. A kitchen is not required for the implementation of the intervention, but participants can be engaged in simple recipe preparation as an instructional strategy. The adult curriculum of Food Smarts is available in English, Spanish, Russian, Chinese, Vietnamese, and Korean. The youth curriculum is available in only English.
Developer
Leah's Pantry
Year
2018
food smarts with images of people and a smart phone forming a circle with the words training platform in the center with yellow Toolkit Strategy banner
Funding Source
Unknown
Free Material
No
Cost ($)
$125.00
SNAP-Ed Toolkit Classification
Practice-tested
Evaluation Information

Outcome evaluations demonstrate statistically significant improvement in short- and medium-term healthy eating indicators. Per our FY 2017 outcome evaluation, participants reported statistically significant changes in:

  • Using MyPlate to make food choices  
  • Increasing fruit and vegetable consumption  
  • Eating more than one kind of vegetable  
  • Decreasing sugary beverage consumption

The FY15 and FY16 evaluations also demonstrate statistically significant changes in food safety and resource management.  

Evaluation Framework Indicators
MT1
SNAP-Ed Connection Comments

There is a cost for training in most cases but often the state agency funds training for local implementers. Once an agency is trained, digital access to curriculum materials is free. Printed workbooks and instructor guides may be ordered from Leah’s Pantry or Amazon.com at a cost. 

Print copies of the participant workbooks and accompanying instructor guides can be purchased through our website. Costs vary, please see website for updated prices. https://www.leahspantry.org/product-category/food-smarts/.

*SNAP-Ed Strategies & Interventions: An Obesity Prevention Toolkit for States is a compilation of interventions. The toolkit was developed by USDA's Food and Nutrition Service, The Association of SNAP-Ed Nutrition Education Administrators (ASNNA), the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill's Center for Training and Research Translation (Center TRT), and the National Collaborative on Childhood Obesity Research (NCCOR), a partnership between the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the National Institutes for Health (NIH), the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, and the USDA. It is designed and updated to help state SNAP-Ed administrative and implementing agencies identify evidence-based obesity prevention programs and policy, systems, and environmental (PSE) strategies and interventions to include in their SNAP-Ed plans.

 

Review date
Reviewer Initials
MR