Until now, meals in infant facilities such as nursery schools were served in nursery rooms and playrooms. In recent years, dining rooms and kitchens have been placed in the center of the facility. In addition, there were increased efforts to encourage children's interest in food. However, the adjacent space between the dining room and the kitchen on children's interest in food has not been clarified quantitatively.

　Therefore, in this study, the adjacent space between dining rooms and kitchens to support food education on children's food interest was clarified. Children's interest in food was measured by their interest in eating, their willingness to serve meals, preparing meals, cleaning up, and eating behavior. The kitchen is supposed to be an open type so that children can see the cooking process through the serving corner. The dining room is a space dedicated to meals, which is adjacent to the kitchen.

　First, a questionnaire survey was conducted in 2019 for infant facilities with a capacity of 80 or more in Ibaraki Prefecture in Japan. The number of valid responses collected was 142. As a result, in the cooking room adjacent to the dining room, a kitchen waste recycling activity was carried out by visually opening. In the dedicated dining room adjacent to the kitchen, ingredients were cultivated, harvested, cooking and childcare, and parent-child cooking was carried out.

　Next, a questionnaire survey was conducted with parents of facilities with a connecting space between the dining room and the kitchen and facilities without a connecting space. The number of valid responses collected was 248. Structural equation modeling was performed on the obtained data. The results show that the children's dietary education experience at the facility affected their daily eating habits. In particular, in facilities where there is a connecting space between the dining room and the kitchen, daily eating habits increased children's interest in cooking.

　In addition, a questionnaire survey was conducted on 327 children (155 with a dining room/kitchen area and 172 without a dining room/kitchen area). Adjacent to the dedicated dining room and kitchen, it was revealed that children enjoy a series of actions such as eating together, appetite, expectation for school lunch, favor, school lunch, preparation, serving, eating, and tidying up. In this space, the dining room was used as a dedicated space for meals, creating special feelings and expectations for children and encouraging positive behavioral changes to food. In addition, this space encouraged behavior change in habits such as chewing well and eating breakfast every morning.