Identifying Food Literacy Educational Opportunities for Youth

Abstract

Background: Recent efforts supporting children's dietary behaviors suggest the importance of food literacy (FL), which is a multidimensional concept that encompasses food-related knowledge, skills, and behaviors. To date, FL has been largely informed by adult and adolescent research.

Aims: To assess the FL experiences, perceived skills, and knowledge of school-age children to inform FL educational opportunities.

Method: Six focus groups were conducted with children (age 9-12 years) from three Massachusetts elementary schools. Two team members independently reviewed and coded a portion of the transcripts to assess interrater reliability. Predominant themes connected to children's perceived FL skills and knowledge were identified using an inductive and deductive content analysis approach.

Results: There were five central FL themes identified during the focus groups ( n = 31 children), including (1) food systems concepts; (2) food safety and food freshness; (3) gardening environment, perceived skills, and knowledge; (4) cooking environment, perceived skills, and safety; and (5) autonomy of meal preparation.

Discussion: The themes that emerged in these focus groups with children provided new information surrounding children's perceived FL skills and knowledge as well as important context regarding the food environment (school vs. home). These findings captured important concepts across the "farm to plate" spectrum and highlight potential school-based opportunities where FL topics could be expanded upon most successfully.

Conclusion: This formative research informed educational opportunities for a FL curriculum, which holds promise for improving food-based education and programs, designing more effective interventions, and developing measurement tools.

Keywords: children; cooking; food literacy; food systems; gardening; nutrition.