The Comfortable Cafeteria Program for Promoting Student Participation and Enjoyment: An Outcome Study

A mixed methods design was used to explore the outcomes of a 6-week, occupational therapy-led Comfortable Cafeteria program designed to build capacity of cafeteria supervisors to create a positive mealtime environment so that all students can successfully participate in and enjoy their meal and socialization with peers. Statistically significant improvements in pretest posttest visual analogue scale ratings of participation in and enjoyment for students with low and mid-range scores at the outset was found. Cafeteria supervisors demonstrated statistically significant improvements in perceptions of having the knowledge and skills to supervise and to encourage healthy eating based on pretest posttest ratings. Qualitative findings add further insight about the program suggesting that students learned prosocial values (e.g. being kind, helping others), supervisors actively encouraged positive social interaction, and occupational therapy practitioners enjoyed implementing the Comfortable Cafeteria program and recognized positive supervisor and student changes as a result of integrating services in the cafeteria.