FoodStream LEARN is a New York City Department of Education approved food education partner bringing cooking, gardening and nutrition learning into K-12 classrooms. All ages. All abilities. Blending immersive, hands-on activities with Common Core skills, we help students connect food to culture, health, climate, sustainability, and their future. The result? Happier, healthier, smarter kids who are more focused, more confident, and more excited to LEARN. We believe food and nutrition education is a vital part of any curriculum and sets kids up for life. But why is it important to teach kids about food?
Health & Diet Epidemic in Children
In the United States over 14 million or 1 in 5 children are obese. Nearly 40% of New York City Public School Children are overweight or obese. This can lead to chronic health problems like heart disease and type 2 diabetes. This disproportionately affects low-income and minority communities.
Food & Nutrition Literacy
According to the Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) food and nutrition literacy and their slight technical difference is described as:
“While some researchers use nutritional literacy and food literacy synonymously, others distinguish the two and refer to nutrition literacy as going beyond understanding the origin of food, how it is cultivated and processed and its impact on health, to being able to act on nutritional information”.
Nutrition literacy is centered on the ingredients, nutritional content and their impact on health, while food literacy is more broadly about understanding where food comes from and the social, economic and environmental impacts on what we eat.
The food education framework is centered around teaching three dimensions of the impact of food:
- Functional (Skills): Practical abilities such as meal planning, reading nutrition labels, and basic cooking techniques like chopping vegetables or following recipes.
- Relational (Emotional/Cultural): Developing a pleasure for healthy foods, enjoying shared meals, and understanding food culture.
- Critical (Societal): The ability to analyze food marketing and understand the environmental, social, and economic impacts of food choices.
Despite the vast amount of scholarly research on the benefits of food and nutrition, the CDC estimates that students receive less than eight hours of nutrition education per year nationally and instruction on nutrition and dietary behaviors is not mandatory in all schools in the US. As a result of the lack of food education many students have little knowledge of where food comes from, how its grown or produced and what healthy food is or not. This is further exacerbated by socioeconomic conditions that affect low-income and minority communities. For example, limited availability of or access to affordable healthy food can further strain the dietary understanding and ability to make healthy food consumer choices. This is further compounded by marketing and the food industry profit motive, which has led to the ubiquity and promotion of cheap, accessible and unhealthy food. If you watch TV or go on social media, you’re immediately bombarded with messaging about the latest fast food offering or viral food craze. This is particularly effective in influencing children that are more impressionable or have a lack of understanding of food and nutrition effects on health.
Food Education in Practice
At Foodstream our food literacy programs are designed and focused on a real world impact for our students. We focus on topics and a learning experience that offers a well-rounded curriculum and practical skills. The areas where food education can improve s
Plan and Manage
- Prioritizing money and time for food: This involves budgeting for groceries, comparing prices, and allocating sufficient time for both shopping and meal preparation amidst a busy schedule. This skill helps prevent relying on more expensive, often less healthy, convenience or fast food options.
- Planning meals ahead: This practical skill aids in organization, reduces food waste, and ensures a balanced intake of nutrients throughout the week. Meal planning often goes hand-in-hand with efficient grocery shopping.
Select
- Accessing food through various sources: This involves knowing where to find healthy food options—whether a traditional supermarket, a farmer’s market, a community supported agriculture (CSA) box, or navigating federal assistance programs like SNAP/EBT.
- Reading/interpreting labels to judge food quality: Understanding nutrition facts panels, identifying hidden sugars or sodium, and recognizing marketing buzzwords versus genuine health claims.
Prepare
- Possessing basic cooking skills: Learning culinary skills, understanding how food is cooked or prepared and how healthy ingredients come together to make food taste good.
- Using equipment safely to make meals: Teaching the skills to safely use and maintain the tools of the kitchen and how to practice safe food handling.
Eat
- Understanding portion sizes: Distinguishing between a serving size (as listed on a label) and an appropriate portion size for an individual’s needs.
- Social dining: Enjoying shared meals with family and friends, cultural importance of food traditions and the social bonding that occurs over food.
- Maintaining a healthy relationship with food: Focusing on aspects like mindful eating, avoiding emotional eating, and choices that lead to long-term psychological well-being regarding diet.
The importance of food education for children goes beyond ingredients and cooking. It’s an opportunity to give kids life long knowledge on how to be healthy and prosperous…
For more information about our Learn programs go to Foodstream or email us at support@foodstreamnetwork.com
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