If you have kids or have worked with children, you might recognize exchanges like these.
Time to brush teeth. “But why?!”
Socks don’t go on our hands. “But why?!”
Let’s eat a colorful plate of vegetables. “But why?!”
Kids are curious and want to understand the world around them—the world they’ll inherit from us. And food is central: Well-nourished children, of course, perform better in school, and building food literacy from a young age is transformative for kids’ understanding of empathy, sustainability, and health.
When we give kids nutritious food to eat, we also have to make sure we answer their number one question: Why? Why are these particular foods good for our bodies and the planet? Why is it important to participate in growing food ourselves? Why does what we eat matter?
Luckily, around the globe, inspiring organizations are working tirelessly to connect children with both healthy meals and the nutrition education to truly understand what they’re eating—and why.
“Let’s give kids positive, memorable, community-building experiences with real food as a way to build preferences for that food, build confidence in utilizing and eating that food, and build skills in kitchens and gardens,” says Jenn Mampara, Director of Education for FRESHFARM, whose FoodPrints program integrates these skills directly into local schools’ curricula.
It’s inspiring to see how these organizations are encouraging students to try foods they may not otherwise. The Chennai Urban Farming Initiative’s Chief Resilience Officer Krishna Mohan tells Food Tank that many of the kids he works with typically hate spinach. But when they’re a part of the growing process, “the children seem to love the taste of the spinach they grow,” he says.
But nutrition education can’t replace building meaningful access to affordable, nourishing foods for people of all ages; rather it must work alongside it. As we’ve said before, a true root cause of hunger is poverty: People experiencing food insecurity don’t need to be lectured—they need the financial resources to put their food knowledge into action.
When supplemental food relief and a strong social safety net are able to work in tandem with food programming that’s responsive to community needs and cultural backgrounds, the whole food system is better off.
“Over time, with enough programming for youth and families across a community, demand for access to fresh produce and cooking skills will grow,” Carolyn Federman, the Founder of the Charlie Cart Project, tells Food Tank.
Here are some more of the many organizations working tirelessly to build nutrition education for the next generation:
1. Agri Aware is creating national awareness of Ireland’s food system through programs like Incredible Edibles, which teaches primary school students about healthy eating and growing.
2. Big Green provides modular garden beds that fit individual schools’ needs to help create more accessibility.
3. Brighter Bites hosts nutrition education sessions, recipe demos, tasting sessions, and produce distribution for kids and parents around the U.S.
4. British Nutrition Foundation works with teachers to make food and nutrition education a central part of lessons.
5. Chennai Urban Farming Initiative partners with day care centers and schools in Chennai, India to build organic, edible gardens that are used to teach students about food systems, farming, and composting.
6. Conscious Kitchen improves food equity with low-waste school and community kitchens.
7. Cooking with Kids helps classroom teachers in New Mexico integrate fresh fruit and vegetables into their regular lessons.
8. Food & Trees for Africa in South Africa runs the EduPlant School Gardening Programme, which establishes school-linked farms that serve entire communities.
9. Food Literacy Center teaches children in lower-income elementary schools in California about cooking, nutrition, and active play.
10. FoodCorps serves schools in 18 states plus D.C. with initiatives to create a sense of belonging through meals and hands-on food education.
11. Fresh Roots operates two half-acre farms at secondary schools in Vancouver, Canada to teach students about organic principles and grow food for the community.
12. Gardeneers, working in Chicago, creates customized school garden programs to build youth leadership.
13. Green Bronx Machine inspires school food security and workforce development with wellness programs and garden installations.
14. Green School offers experiential learning in a wall-less and nature-immersed environment at its schools in Indonesia, New Zealand, and South Africa.
15. Kids in Nutrition sends teams of student educators to classrooms to offer interactive, playful nutrition lessons.
16. Pilot Light partners with educators to illuminate connections between wellness and community.
17. Resilient School Feeding is a project supported by the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization helping primary schools in Belize incorporate gardens to enhance nutrition education.
18. Rooftop Republic helps build urban farms at sites, including schools, in Hong Kong and offers urban farming programming for young people.
19. Slow Food Foundation for Biodiversity facilitates the Slow Food Gardens in Africa program to support African school and community gardens.
20. SUGi Project connects students in Sao Paulo, Brazil to three different food forests.
21. The Charlie Cart Project gets communities cooking with mobile kitchens and support for teachers.
22. The Chef Ann Foundation helps school districts create—and sustain—food-from-scratch cooking in cafeterias.
23. The Edible Schoolyard Project, founded by chef Alice Waters, helps students in schools around the world connect with their food by growing and cooking it themselves.
24. Victorian Schools Garden Program helps schools in Victoria, Australia start or repair gardens and offers teachers resources to support outdoor learning.
25. Wellness in the Schools partners with schools, chefs, and coaches to promote nourishing food and active play.
26. Whole Kids provides grants for schools to build gardens and develop related programs. They also offer cooking and nutrition education for school teachers and staff and provides schools with salad bars.
What organizations are working in your communities to make sure young people understand the why behind nourishing food? Share their stories with me at [email protected], and let’s keep adding to this list!
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Photo courtesy of U.S. Department of Agriculture
