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Enhancing Food Security <strong>and</strong> Physical Activity <strong>for</strong> Māori, Pacific <strong>and</strong> Low-income PeoplesChapter 3: Food purchasing influences3.1 Enhancing cooking skillsDelvina Gorton, Cliona Ni MhurchuSummaryCooking skills are an important life skill <strong>and</strong> a means of preparing af<strong>for</strong>dable, healthy<strong>food</strong>s. Thus, cooking skills interventions could be a positive means of reducing apotential barrier to <strong>food</strong> <strong>security</strong> <strong>for</strong> some households, however there has been littleresearch conducted assessing their impact on <strong>food</strong> <strong>security</strong>. Cooking skillsinterventions do seem, however, to provide benefits such as increased cookingconfidence, cooking frequency, <strong>and</strong> <strong>food</strong> hygiene. There also seems to be dem<strong>and</strong><strong>for</strong> cooking skills training from priority populations. There are two common ways toteach cooking skills: through schools (<strong>for</strong> children), or in community classes (<strong>for</strong>adults). There is a wide range of cooking skills courses on offer in New Zeal<strong>and</strong>, <strong>and</strong>it is recommended that existing courses are evaluated <strong>and</strong> successful <strong>for</strong>mats arebuilt on <strong>and</strong> exp<strong>and</strong>ed. Alongside this, basic cooking skills training should return tothe school curricula.Specific recommendations are that:• practical cooking skills are taught in schools, with a focus on preparingaf<strong>for</strong>dable healthy meals (<strong>for</strong> example, the NZQA st<strong>and</strong>ard to ‘providenutritious low cost <strong>food</strong> <strong>for</strong> a family’). The focus in the curriculum should be onpractical, h<strong>and</strong>s-on, cooking skills rather than a focus on <strong>food</strong> technology.• flexible community-based cooking skills courses are implemented at a nationallevel, with ability to tailor to audiences. These should incorporate the keycomponents <strong>for</strong> effectiveness identified in this chapter.• community-based cooking skills courses should be evaluated to determinetheir impact on <strong>food</strong> <strong>security</strong>.Problem DefinitionFood <strong>security</strong> encompasses having sufficient <strong>food</strong> that is nutritious, safe, <strong>and</strong>acceptable. In order to achieve this, some cooking skills are needed. There has beengrowing concern about an increasing lack of even the most basic cooking skills in bothchildren <strong>and</strong> adults. This lack of skill leads to a reliance on processed <strong>and</strong> preprepared<strong>food</strong>s, <strong>and</strong> limits the use of some cheaper <strong>food</strong>s <strong>and</strong> ways of preparingmeals. Stitt has called the growing lack of cooking skills the “deskilling process”,assisted by the removal of cooking skills from education systems in many countries<strong>and</strong> expansion of the processed <strong>food</strong>stuffs market. 1 He notes that removing cookingskills from the education system will deprive low-income households of a means toaf<strong>for</strong>d a healthy diet. Others have stated that “it is essential that children are taughtrelevant <strong>food</strong> skills if they are to have the choice of eating a healthy diet”. 2Internationally, there is some evidence from cross-sectional studies <strong>and</strong> qualitativeresearch of a relationship between lack of cooking skills <strong>and</strong>/or lack of knowledge <strong>and</strong><strong>food</strong> in<strong>security</strong> (Table 1). Further, some participants in the ENHANCE focus groupsexpressed support <strong>for</strong> cooking skills training. 3 In focus groups with low-income62

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