SMART CAFÉ: A student-directed interprofessional team approach to nutrition education in schools

Nutritionally inadequate diets predispose children to frequent illness and infection, behavior and learning problems, and development of chronic disease. Nevertheless, graduate students in health sciences receive little training in counseling patients on the importance of a balanced diet for children. Furthermore, these graduate students have few opportunities for collaboration across disciplines until they begin their careers.

SMART CAFÉ is a service project with volunteers from the schools of medicine, public health, dentistry, allied health professions, and nursing. An interprofessional student board recruits volunteers and trains them to visit elementary school cafeterias where they will teach nutrition and encourage underserved children to try new foods rich in protein and vitamins. The board consults faculty for advice on methods, monitoring, and evaluation, and communicates with elementary schools and the school food provider to best meet community needs.

SMART CAFÉ facilitates student collaboration in planning, executing, and critically reflecting on the intervention, creating a space for peer education and building collective efficacy. Facilitation, as explained by Social Cognitive Theory, can empower students to adopt strategies they will use for the duration of their careers, leading to improved patient outcomes and public health. Programs like SMART CAFÉ often struggle to engage volunteers across disciplines due to difference in schedules, few open lines of communication, and limited appreciation of the urgency of preventive medicine. Establishing an interprofessional student board overcomes these challenges and prepares students to lead interprofessional teams. Moreover, SMART CAFÉ’s simplicity makes it easily reproducible at other health sciences centers.