City Harvest Programs » Nutrition Education

Families

Research has shown that eating together has positive effects on families and particularly on children. Children who eat meals at home with their parents are more likely to eat fruits and vegetables and more likely to be successful in school. Most parents recognize that meals can be an important time to spend with their children, but many parents are short on time from working long hours and feel like they don’t have the money, the patience, or the energy to cook meals at home that are both healthy and appealing to their children.

Foods that are presented in a tasty and positive way encourage children to broaden their eating experiences and are more likely to contribute to healthy eating habits as children get older. Combining these tasty opportunities with experiential education, including hands-on opportunities for preschoolers to touch, taste and smell fruits or vegetables in their whole, raw state and working with older children to prepare their own recipes using fresh fruits and vegetables enhances the experience.

Projects

• Fruit Bowl Family Curriculum
• Produce Education Program (PEP)
• Operation Frontline

Fruit Bowl Family Curriculum

In an evaluation conducted in the fall of 2007, Fruit Bowl sites suggested that the most successful learning activities were those that included a component of parental involvement. For younger children in particular, the necessity to reach out to the parents is clear, as parents are the ones who make decisions about what foods their children eat at home and that, in turn, impacts the children’s future eating habits.

Our eight-week Family Curriculum course was designed to teach caregivers and children together through hands-on healthy cooking and nutrition activities. The Family Curriculum encourages families to make healthy choices about what they eat and to share the shopping, food preparation and meals outside of the classroom. The main topics covered are food, cooking, nutrition, savvy shopping, financial literacy, and media awareness. Along with discussion and teaching games, a meal is prepared and then eaten during each class.

"The most important thing I learned was that cooking with your kids helps you develop a relationship and teach them to appreciate cooking and improve their cooking techniques."

– Parent participant at a preschool site

Produce Education Program (PEP)

Our Produce Education Program was designed to teach about cooking with seasonal produce, using produce directly from local farmers when available. Food is procured through Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) programs in which households purchase a “share” of the harvest of a local farm or local farmer’s markets. Also covered are advantages of receiving the freshest of foods directly from a local farm and nutrition. Parents attend with their own children and learn to prepare meals together. They are encouraged to cook together and eat together at home. Classes are held weekly for eight weeks.

"When I first started getting the vegetables, sometimes I wouldn’t cook the greens at all. But now when I open the refrigerator, I swear, the greens are calling me, ‘eat me,’ ‘eat me!’ It’s like my body has become used to eating healthy, and now I notice when I’m not.”

– Parent participant