Healthy Cooking Club
Cooking with kids is a great way to educate them about good nutrition, what's in season, planning and preparing meals, and reading food labels.
Read MoreFood Art
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As a kid, did anyone ever tell you to stop playing with your food? “Playing with your food” by creating food art is a great way to introduce healthy foods in a fun and interactive way. What is food art? Think fruit and vegetable turkeys for Thanksgiving, fruit trays in the shape of a rainbow or balloons made out of grapes. It’s fun, creative and delicious!
Take Action
- Incorporate a food art activity in a nutrition education lesson to help students make the connection between knowledge and behaviors.
- Make food art part of your classroom birthday celebrations. Ask the birthday child to pick their favorite food art and create it as a class to celebrate.
- Create a food art cooking class at your school as an after school healthy cooking club.
- As an activity, provide fresh fruits and vegetables (or ask students to sign up to bring them in) and allow students to create whatever comes to mind. Guide them with a topic such as “The First Thanksgiving”, “Mammals” or “Sports” and tie it back to learning standards.
- Host a school-wide “Top Chef Food Art Competition.” Provide participating students with a selection of fruits and vegetables and let their creatively loose. Allow all students to vote during their lunch period.
- Ask school nutrition staff to use food art when displaying the fruits or vegetables of the day. With a little creativity, students might be more likely to pick the fun, healthy option.
Tips
Teach nutrition education using My Plate recommendations whenever doing food art.
Use cookie cutters to cut fruits and vegetables to make your designs.
If your school only allows students to consume pre-packaged or whole fruits and vegetables, use food art for demonstrations only (not consumption).
Cut fruits and vegetables ahead of time.