Food Education – it’s the key to changing the crisis that’s facing Children’s Health.
You know I am dedicating my time to food education with my mission to Transform Children’s Health in Australia, One Lunchbox At A Time. Although our bus, our big statement to Australia, is still getting finished, we’re still taking our mission on the road. This week we’re off Qld, where we will be running The Mad Food Science Program™ in Rockhampton. We will be squashing everything we need (including the 2 kids) into our little 4WD and camping along the way until we reach Rocky. We have been totally gutted by what’s happened to our bus, but today as we pack to go on this road trip, I am excited that we’re not letting the drama’s stand in the way of our mission. Thank you for sticking by us, and we can’t wait to roll out our mission the way it’s meant to be in August when our bus is ready.
But now let’s talk about on a much bigger scale than Australia. Jamie Oliver is taking the fight for Food Education, for ALL school children, WORLDWIDE to the powers that be at the G20 Summit later this year. You can help him show them how important this is by signing his petition here (if you haven’t already done so).
You can also help by taking part in Food Revolution Day Friday 15th May 2015. I am a very proud Ambassador for Food Revolution Day, and because I will be on the road travelling on the 15th May, I thought I would give you a couple of tools you can do with your kids on Food Revolution Day (and any other day really).
Taste Testing Game
Have some fun with your children and get them to taste test loads of fresh fruit and vegetables by having a taste testing game. Here’s how you play:
- Get your child excited by talking about playing a fun taste testing game
- Print off the Taste Testing Game Sheet – you may wish to print one off for yourself too
- Cut up fruit and vegetables into small bite sized pieces – 2 to 3
pieces of each - Place each different fruit or vegetable into individual holes in a muffin tin or ice cube tray. Or lay them out in the rainbow of colours on a plate
- Explain the game is about tasting each piece at least once, then they can circle smiley face if they like it, sad face if they don’t. They may need your help with this step. If they don’t like it, don’t make a fuss, let them move onto the next piece.
- At the end of the game, talk to them about what they liked and didn’t like, and why they liked it and didn’t like it. If they aren’t sure, ask if they can try again and let you know. You could also ask them if you can try a piece.
The idea of this game is to just simply to get more fruit and vegetables in front of your children. You may be surprised with some they like. Start adding the ones they like into their lunchbox and making them more available at dinner time – perhaps as finger food. The more they see it, the more normal it will become. Once they are use to seeing more of these vegetables, gradually add in some of the other ones they didn’t like. Remember, most of us taste with our eyes first, children are no different. Sometimes they will say I don’t like a food without even trying it, sometimes they will say they don’t like it after trying it. But research shows, it takes somewhere between 7 to 12 times of tasting a food before a child determines if they really like it or not. So keep trying.
Shopping Lists
In The 5 Minute Healthy Lunchbox System™ eCourse, we spend considerable time working on getting the kids involved in choosing what they want in their lunchbox, cooking in the kitchen and shopping. One of the incredible mum’s (Kellie) who is currently enrolled into eCourse has designed these shopping lists for her daughter. When they go shopping, her daughter’s job is to choose the fruit and vegetables from the chart, then cross them off when they put them in their basket or trolley. Kellie suggests laminating the lists so you can reuse them, and she also rotates between the cartoon ones and the real pictures.
We hope you enjoy them. And, thank you so much Kellie.