About Deadly Koolinga Chefs

Building nutritional health literacy

The Deadly Koolinga Chef Program (DKCP) is an Aboriginal community based children and adolescent’s cooking and nutrition program that aims to build nutritional health literacy for improved and sustained health and well-being.

The DKCP translational research project development has been in collaborative consultation with Aboriginal community Elders, Aboriginal community organisations, Local Government and relevant Aboriginal health services.

The program caters for 6 – 12 year old children on a weekly basis through the school terms, with workshops for adolescents (13 – 18 years) throughout the two year duration of the research initiative.

The DKCP will be conducted through the Murdoch University Ngangk Yira Institute for Change in collaboration with the project partners from Mandurah and Pinjarra in the Peel region of WA.

The classes at each partner site will be facilitated by the project’s lead Chief Investigator, the Aboriginal Cooking Class Facilitator employed by the project, Aboriginal Education Officer’s from the partner schools, and Aboriginal Health Workers from the local Aboriginal Health Service (AHS). Each class/workshop carters for 10 children/adolescents, and each week participants take home a meal for 4-6 people. For inclusion and equity in participation, there is a roster system for participants and support/assistance rosters for parents/carers to engage with the activities and support the children. A DKCP website provides the participating organisations with all the necessary resources for the cooking classes.

A community based action research approach will underpin qualitative and quantitative data collection, and Realist Evaluation of the program. From the research findings a WA Aboriginal nutrition health promotion framework will inform the translation of the DKCP to other AHSs across WA.