Encourage families to eat meals together at home.

• Invite families to visit your program and eat a meal with their child. This may help families understand and create a healthy mealtime environment at home.
• If your program does family style dining, show how children pass bowls of food and serve themselves. Families may be surprised their children are able to do this and may be more willing to try it at home. You can also provide information on family style dining. The April Mealtime Memo provides links to some ICN resources on the topic.

Plan health-focused events like a “Family Health Night.”

• Taste test healthy foods.
• Provide healthy menus and recipes to take home.
• Invite health experts (dietitian, farmer, personal trainer, health coach, yoga instructor) to provide demonstrations and presentations and answer questions.
• Find an expert in your community:
  • Registered Dietitian: Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics, Find a Nutrition Expert
  • Farmer: search LocalHarvest or the National Farm to School Network
  • Personal trainer, health coach, yoga instructor: contact a local gym or workout facility near you
  • Other health experts: contact your local community hospital

Enlist the help of family volunteers in the classroom.

• Family members can help read to the class, lead an art activity, or play games with the children.
• Have the children show off the garden and explain how they help the food grow. If a family member has a green thumb, ask for their expertise.
• Invite family members to share their jobs and/or talents with the class.

Encourage families to read with their children at home.

• Set up a lending library for families to check out food-themed books.
• Include lists of books or feature a book in each newsletter or resource.
• The May and June Mealtime Memos provide lists of age-appropriate multicultural and food-themed books.

Encourage families to set healthy goals at home.

• The Start Simple with MyPlate App allows you to pick daily food goals, see real-time progress, and earn badges. This easy-to-use app can help make positive changes.
• Encourage families to participate in health challenges that can be tracked in different apps, fitness trackers, or on paper. Examples of different challenges include:
  • Steps challenge: track number of steps taken
  • Physical activity challenge: log number of minutes and type of physical activity completed
  • Drink more water challenge: record number of cups of drinking water
  • Fruit and vegetable challenge: count number of servings of fruits and vegetables eaten
  • Reading challenge: log number of minutes, books, and/or pages read

Encourage children to help prepare meals.

Engaging children in the kitchen and with food preparation can pique interest, create excitement, teach essential skills, and increase acceptance of new foods. Families may be hesitant about allowing their children to help; however, the following tips and resources can make food preparation a fun and memorable experience for all! Here are some tasks children can help with:

• Pick produce from the garden
• Snap green beans or snap peas, or break florets from broccoli or cauliflower
• Tear lettuce for salads and sandwiches
• Measure ingredients with measuring cups and spoons
• Measure and sprinkle herbs or other seasonings for the recipe
• Use child-safe kitchen tools
• Clean up messes
• Read from a recipe
• Talk about healthy foods