Sandhills Community Kitchen Evaluation: Using the Veggie Meter

NCT05494814 | Withdrawn

• 1 other identifier: 24444
• Study Type: interventional
• Target: N/A
• Locations: 1 country
• Sites: 1

Brief Summary

This clinical trial will evaluate the development, implementation, and impact of a central kitchen preparing and serving meals to child care centers in rural Harnett County, North Carolina. The goals of the kitchen are to improve meal quality, reduce workload on child care providers, create a sustainable business model, and provide a source of community economic development. Our evaluation of the Sandhills Central Community Kitchen is important to better understand how this model can be replicated to serve rural communities. We will recruit 20 child care centers (10 intervention and 10 as a control group); we estimate that each child care center will serve 40 children. We will collect baseline data at the beginning of the project from all 20 centers, and will repeat data collection at the end of the project to assess changes. Data will be collected through parent surveys, surveys and interviews with child care center directors, surveys and focus groups with teachers, interviews with the church pastor and community leaders where the kitchen is based, surveys of kitchen staff, nutritional analysis of menu data, collection and analysis of food costs, and through use of the "Veggie Meter" (a non-invasive instrument that assesses changes in intake of fruits and vegetables by measuring skin carotenoids) with child care center children and staff. Our goal is to document the impacts of central kitchens in terms of nutritional and economic benefits in order to create a replicable model.

Conditions

Diet, Healthy

Outcome Measures

Primary Outcomes (1)

• Change in produce intake

  Measured through "Veggie Meter" scans of child care center children and staff, which measure the level of carotenoids in the skin.

  Will be assessed pre-intervention and one year later.

Study Arms (2)

Child Care Centers Served Meals Prepared by Central Kitchen

EXPERIMENTAL

Children ages 3-5 attending a child care center that purchases meals prepared by a central kitchen.

Other: Child Care Centers Served Meals Prepared by Central Kitchen

Child Care Centers Not Served Meals Prepared by Central Kitchen

NO INTERVENTION

Children ages 3-5 attending a child care center that does not purchase meals prepared by a central kitchen.

Interventions

Child Care Centers Served Meals Prepared by Central Kitchen OTHER

The child care centers who are served by the central kitchen will receive meals that include locally sourced fresh fruits and vegetables to serve their staff and children.

Child Care Centers Served Meals Prepared by Central Kitchen

Eligibility Criteria

• Age: 3 Years - 5 Years
• Sex: all
• Healthy Volunteers: Yes
• Age Groups: Child (0-17)

Sponsors & Collaborators

• North Carolina State University: lead
• Duke University: collaborator

Study Sites (1)

North Carolina State University

Raleigh, North Carolina, 27695, United States

Location

Study Officials

• Dara Bloom, PhD

  North Carolina State University

  PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR

Study Design

• Study Type: interventional
• Phase: not applicable
• Allocation: NON RANDOMIZED
• Masking: NONE
• Purpose: OTHER
• Intervention Model: PARALLEL
• Sponsor Type: OTHER
• Responsible Party: PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR
• PI Title: Associate Professor and Local Foods Extension Specialist

Study Record Dates

• First Submitted: April 27, 2022
• First Posted: August 10, 2022
• Study Start: January 1, 2024
• Primary Completion: January 1, 2026
• Study Completion: January 1, 2026
• Last Updated: December 12, 2022

Record last verified: 2022-12

Locations

US (1)