Getting Kids’ Handy Dirty: Experiential Approaches to Food Education

February 11, 2020

On January 23, NC hosted the latest webinar in our Unpacking Food Literacy series. Titled “Getting Kids’ Hands Dirty: Experiential Approaches to Children’s Food Education”, this webinar introduced attendees to two leading Ontario-based food education programs for young children.

Janet Nezon, founder of Rainbow Plate, discussed the approach behind her program’s joyful sensory-based approach to food literacy education in the early years. She shared some advice for working with preschool-age children, including letting children lead the process, using accessible, culturally-relevant foods, and remembering that exposure to new foods is still valuable whether or not the children end up eating the food at that time. She also discussed her recent work with adults via her Rainbow Food Explorers Educator Toolkit.

Next, Andrew Fleet, Executive Director of Growing Chefs! Ontario shared insights from his London, Ontario-based program offering a variety of food education projects to get kids and communities excited about healthy, wholesome food. At the Growing Chefs! Headquarters, students have the chance to walk through the entire food system – from growing to eating – in one field trip. Growing Chefs! programs are all aligned with the Ontario curriculum in subjects as diverse as  social studies, math, art, science, literacy, and history. 

The webinar was moderated by Jacalyn Dryland of the Family Table Project.

Stay tuned for more upcoming webinars on a variety of topics!