Methodology for the evaluation of the Stephanie Alexander Kitchen Garden program

Area of Science:

• Public health
• Health promotion
• Experiential learning

Background:

• Growing international interest in community and school cooking and gardening programs.
• Limited empirical evidence on the effectiveness of these programs.
• Need for robust evaluation frameworks to assess program impact.

Purpose of the Study:

• To present the evaluation framework and methods for the Stephanie Alexander Kitchen Garden (SAKG) program.
• To meet the information needs of all stakeholders involved in the SAKG program.
• To address the lack of evidence on the effectiveness of school-based cooking and gardening programs.

Main Methods:

• Utilized a public health ecological approach, health promotion principles, and experiential learning models.
• Employed a non-randomized comparison design with six intervention and six comparison primary schools in Victoria, Australia.
• Implemented a mixed-methods approach combining qualitative and quantitative data collection at baseline and 1-year follow-up.

Main Results:

• The evaluation design addressed limitations in existing studies of cooking or garden programs.
• The multistrand, mixed-methods approach maintained methodological rigor and explored complex findings.
• Identified limited sensitivity in some quantitative measures and potential bias in qualitative data coding.

Conclusions:

• The SAKG evaluation methodology offers a suitable approach for school-based kitchen garden programs.
• Demonstrates the feasibility of comprehensive evaluations for school-based initiatives.
• Highlights the crucial role of qualitative methods within mixed-method evaluations for stakeholder engagement.