The Safe Food Handling for Occasional Quantity Cooks curriculum was de
veloped as an educational program for volunteer quantity cooks who lac
k safe food-handling knowledge. The objectives of this study were to d
etermine the knowledge gain of educators and volunteer quantity cooks
and the behavior change of participants after program attendance. Know
ledge was assessed both pre- and postprogram, and the differences in s
cores of educators and volunteer quantity cooks were determined. A beh
avior checklist was used to monitor self-declared food-handling behavi
or at the time of attendance and 3 months after participation. Partici
pants in the program improved their knowledge or behavior scores, alth
ough statistical significance was not attained in all cases. Results f
rom this pilot study indicate that the curriculum has the potential to
help achieve the goal of preventing foodborne illness in volunteer, t
emporary, or seasonal quantity food production situations. The long-te
rm impact of the curriculum needs to be assessed.