Table 5 Theme 4 preferences for intervention

Family Counseling

Mexican: “[It would be good] if [I] had more information […] to bring […] home […]. Kids are used to eating a very certain way and any time [I] change it [I] get a lot of push back.”

Mexican: “Talking to the younger kids because they’re like the future generation and just letting them know.”

Mexican: “A lot of people don’t listen. Maybe you can get a group to go around to people’s houses and ask if they’re healthy.”

Mexican: “With family and with kids particularly, you need to set an example. The kids won’t eat the vegetables if you won’t eat them.”

Somali: “That’s part of the advocacy, that, we have to advocate to the families and the kids. Then they will know what healthy is, but […] we have to write down those tools and translate it, and acknowledge the parents also.”

Sudanese: “It’s better to do it with your family than to do it alone because if it’s hard going on […] a diet and eating healthy when your brothers and sisters are watching TV and eating junk food, and if you’re a family, [you] motivate each other: ‘Come on, you can do it!’ you know, encourage each other, other than you doing it by yourself.”

Sudanese: “For me it’s the women in the house… […] if we need a solution the woman is a big part of that solution […] because they can change a lot of things.”

Somali: “People they don’t have any knowledge, especially most people who immigrate here and you know, they just have, you know, lack of knowledge.”

Somali: “Parents can start getting better food in the house.”

Mexican: “Not buy the foods that are bad for you, just not buy them, not even have them at home. Just buy veggies and foods that are good for you.”

Community Education

Mexican: “[Education at] church and things like this and together (juntos), or in the Mexican stores […] if you want to reach [us] you’re going to have to go to the Catholic Church.”

Sudanese: “We just [need] knowledge… Yep, about the benefits [of] eating healthy. Like lower the salt [content], lower these oils, sweets. […] In our community you cannot tell somebody “this food is not good” they are going to be mad. […] You cannot talk about my food. That’s cultural law.”

Healthy Traditional Meals

Mexican: “[So that I] can learn how to incorporate the same ingredients but in more, in healthier ways, so that [I am] not changing their diet entirely, just kind of recombining.”

Somali: “If [parents] see you’re getting big because of [traditional food] they give you they’ll have to change it up or like give you smaller amounts.”