Compared to younger children, adolescents are at risk for poor diet and diet-related chronic diseases. Tashara Leak, associate professor in the Division of Nutritional Sciences at Cornell’s College of Human Ecology started a program to help adolescents improve nutrition and health outcomes.
Research at risk: after-school nutrition and career readiness for NYC middle-schoolers
By Laura Reiley, Cornell Chronicle
A prototype for a national 4-H program aimed at helping young people feed themselves and their families nutritiously – and introduce them to potential career paths in agriculture, food and nutrition – has come to a halt.
The 12-week program provided after-school activities for 7th and 8th graders at New York City schools with high percentages of students from low-income families, who often struggle to eat nutritiously.
In early May, Tashara M. Leak, associate professor and associate dean of Cornell Human Ecology in New York City in the College of Human Ecology (CHE), received a stop-work order on a $990,000, five-year grant that funded the Advanced Cooking Education (ACE) 4-H After School Club.
“The intent of this program was to acknowledge that there are adolescents in limited resource homes who have adult-type responsibilities, like taking on food preparation,” Leak said.
Students met one day after school each week for a wellness and professional development session. The program taught students about nutrition and culinary skills, and provided students groceries to prepare plant-based dishes from various cultures represented in New York City. Additionally, “Part of the effort was to expose students to careers in agriculture, food and nutrition such as food science, urban agriculture, food photography, and even coding.”
4-H is one of the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s premier programs, emphasizing experiential learning opportunities for young people aged 5-19. Leak says she designed this program to be replicated in any state in the country to improve the nutrition of young people and to ready the next generation of workers.
Tashara Leak examines an early summer crop of corn with students at Our Lady of Trust in Brooklyn.
In years past, she has taken several ACE students to the 4-H Career Explorations program at Cornell, which aims to expose students to college life as well as expand their career horizons.
“For these students, it’s life changing. Many of them have never left New York City,” Leak said. “It’s their first time away from their parents, first time in a dorm. There are so many life skills they acquire.”
Leak, who was honored in January with the White House 2025 Presidential Early Career Awards for Scientists and Engineers, and in May received the NYS Senate Women of Distinction award, designs culturally relevant interventions that aim to improve diet, health and well-being of adolescents in urban communities. She is co-director of the Action Research Collaborative, housed in the Bronfenbrenner Center for Translational Research.
She received the termination order May 6, effective immediately. The schools in the program have a high percentage of students from low-income homes and so receive Title I funding.
“This happened at nearly the end of the school year, so I used money from my faculty account to keep it going,” Leak said. “Many of these Title 1 schools don’t have other after-school programming. This was the only program. I would have had to call parents and say, ‘Your kids can’t show up tomorrow.’ Where are these kids supposed to go if their parents are counting on them being in this program?”
“I am draining my faculty account to make sure we finish this,” Leak said.
The termination of funding also meant she lost an additional $250,000 to continue the work for one year as part of her award from the White House.
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