(P14-004-25) A Culturally Relevant Approach to Nutrition Education: Chinese Heritage and Identity Through Food And Nutrition (CHIFAN)

Objectives: To examine the key elements of culturally relevant nutrition education through describing the program structure, educational goals, and efficacy assessment of CHIFAN.

Methods: Programming is structured as a 7/8-week, age-group-specific curriculum conducted in the fall, spring, and summer to classes of grades Pre-K, K-2, and 3-5, in NYC public schools associated with the Chinese-American Planning Council. Program evaluation for the Fall 2023, Spring 2024, and Summer 2024 sessions was accomplished through qualitative interviews with school site directors, program volunteers, and parents. Quantitative evaluation, specifically for the Summer 2024 session, was also performed via a 21-item pre-program and post-program survey, which was given to two K-2 classes (n=13) to assess knowledge attainment upon conclusion of the program. Responses were analyzed via an extension of the Fisher’s exact test with Monte Carlo simulation (2000 replicates).

Results: Interviews with site directors, program volunteers, and parents demonstrated increased nutritional knowledge, intake diversity, and acceptance of new foods in our target age groups with a secondary outcome of improved parent-child bonding. However, results from the K-2 pre-program and post-program surveys exhibited mixed outcomes regarding knowledge attainment and understanding of the curriculum, with questions such as “How do you feel about eating vegetables?” (p = 0.545) yielding responses that were not statistically different before and after the program. However, other related items, such as “How do you feel about eating fruit?” (p = 0.046), demonstrated statistical significance when comparing the pre- and post-program responses.

Conclusions: Despite the shortcomings observed in the quantitative analysis of our program effectiveness, we still believe that CHIFAN provides a much-needed foundation for culturally relevant nutrition education, highly emphasized by overwhelmingly positive feedback from site directors, program volunteers, and parents alike.

Funding Sources: Columbia University Institute of Human Nutrition