P76 Engaging New Audiences Through the Healthy Food Fast: Using your Multi-Cooker Program

Objective Provide an overview of Healthy Food Fast: Using your Multi-Cooker (HFF) as an effective one-time program for adults to increase knowledge and intentions for eating healthier, home-prepared meals. Use of Theory or Research Home cooking levels have steadily declined, leading to shifts in family meal frequency and form (Holm & Lund, 2019). Americans have decreased time spent on food preparation and increased reliance on convenience and takeout meals (Wang & Beydoun, 2007). However, research shows many households still view family meals as a priority (Smith et al, 2013). Target Audience Adults (19+ years) wanting to improve food preparation knowledge and skills, specifically on multi-cookers. Program Description HFF incorporates hands-on lessons and recipes to familiarize attendees with multi-cookers. Settings primarily included community organizations and centers, libraries, healthcare, faith-based organizations, and worksites. From 2019-2020, 45 one-time sessions were conducted (93% in-person; 3% virtually). Evaluation Methods Surveys (post-pre format) were conducted immediately post-program either in-person or online and included demographic, food preparation self-efficacy, and food safety questions. Significant differences were detected at P Results Survey respondents (n = 466; 42% return rate) were mostly female (95%) and ranged from 19 to 70 plus years (56% in 50–69-year-old range). Prior multi-cooker experience included: no experience using 1 (54%); using 1 Conclusion HFF introduced attendees to the multi-cooker in a casual learning environment that was associated with improved self-efficacy. These one-time lessons have been effective at introducing adult community members to Extension who may not have been involved in programming previously.