Funded Projects

Enhancing Community Nutrition through Cooking Workshops

Project Year

2025

City & State

Milwaukee, Wisconsin

Program Name

CATCH Resident

Topic

Overweight & Obesity (LHI)

Program Description

Pediatric obesity continues to be one of the most common pediatric chronic diseases, affecting 14.7 million children and adolescents in the United States (CDC 2024). Obesity is a complex disease with many complex biologic, socioeconomic, and environmental factors. In the state of Wisconsin, 18.4% of children ages 6-17 are obese (NSCH 2023). At Midtown Children’s Wisconsin pediatric clinic, the prevalence of childhood obesity is 19.7%, which is higher than both the national and state averages. While weight management counseling is provided to our patients, most of our patients face significant barriers to weight management methods that are most effective, including eating a healthy diet with limited ultra-processed foods, having safe locations for physical activity, and even getting adequate sleep and reducing stress levels. Current community projects taking place at Midtown Clinic are addressing food insecurity, which is a prevalent health disparity at this clinic. Through data obtained through these studies, it was discovered that caregiver knowledge of nutrition is generally low, but caregivers emphasized that they place value on healthy eating and supporting a healthy lifestyle for their children. This has uncovered a need and desire for caregivers to have access to nutrition education to support healthy lifestyles for their children. This project proposal was created with the goal to close this gap for the patients and families at Midtown Clinic.  The goal of this project is to provide nutrition education through interactive classes that will allow families at Midtown Clinic to make simple, sustainable changes to their nutrition to promote healthy weights and lifelong healthy habits.  The proposed intervention of this project is to partner with a local organization, Food for Health, to provide interactive nutrition classes specifically targeting children, youth, and their parents. Food for Health is a nonprofit organization that provides a medically tailored meal program that places participants at the center of their focus. Participants receive medically tailored meals delivered to their homes, are assigned a health coach, and receive access to educational content to support their health journey. As a part of this program, they offer free cooking and nutrition classes that take place in an onsite kitchen. This program is currently offered to adults only, but the proposed intervention is to partner with Food for Health to offer classes specifically tailored at children, youth, and caretakers.  This project will serve a subset of patients from Midtown Clinic that are enrolled in the Children’s Wisconsin NEW Kids Program. The NEW (Nutrition, Exercise, and Weight Management) Kids Program targets children ages 2-18 with medical conditions related to having an elevated BMI or gaining weight too quickly. A critical component of this program is diet modification, but the barriers to this can be significant. This project aims to address the barriers of education, time restraint, and cost. The classes that are created for this project will be tailored to focus on quick, nutrient-dense, and inexpensive meals that make healthy eating more accessible to our target population. These classes will be created with the assistance of a registered dietician.   The anticipated outcome of this project is that caregivers will feel that they have learned valuable information regarding nutrition that is applicable to their daily lives. Additionally, the patients will have learned age-appropriate nutrition information that will help to support lifelong healthy habits and will be empowered to be involved in age-appropriate food preparation activities. More specifically, we aim to increase nutrition knowledge among participants, as well increase the amount of healthy, homemade meals that are prepared on a weekly basis in the homes of participants due to skills learned in the classes that are offered. 

Project Goal

Within the next year, equip families at Midtown Clinic at increased risk for obesity-related comorbidities with the knowledge and skills to make sustainable dietary changes that support healthy weight and overall well-being.

Project Objective 1

Develop and pilot a culturally sensitive nutrition education curriculum, including an interactive session and practical resources, for Midtown patients enrolled in the NEW Kids program at Children’s Wisconsin by June 2025.

Project Objective 2

Conduct four healthy cooking and food preparation classes at Food for Health between July 2025 and April 2026 to improve the dietary knowledge and fruit/vegetable consumption of Midtown Clinic patients and their families.

Project Objective 3

By May 2025, evaluate the impact of the healthy cooking program on participant knowledge, behaviors, and health outcomes. This will be assessed through surveys measuring behavioral changes and by analyzing changes in BMI, weight, and other available metrics in the electronic medical records (e.g., HgbA1c).

AAP District

District VI

Institutional Name

Midtown Clinic Children's Wisconsin

Contact 1

Macey Johnson, MD