Farm to ECE: Nutrition Education
Through fun hands-on learning activities young children can learn life-long healthy eating habits and be introduced to a variety of fresh and local foods. By integrating nutrition education into curriculum, children will learn important developmental skills and help your program meet the Illinois Early Learning and Development Standards.
Check out these great resources for more information on how to incorporate nutrition education into your ECE program:
Curriculum
- Farm to Preschool Harvest of the Month Curriculum [PDF] by Urban and Environmental Policy Institute, Occidental College
- Grow It, Try It, Like It! Nutrition Education Kit Featuring MyPlate [website] by United States Department of Agriculture
- Got Veggies? ECE Edition [PDF] by Community Groundworks
- Preschool Lesson Plans [website] by Growing Minds
- How’s It Growing? [PDF] by Emily Mehr
- Multicultural Collection of Farm to ECE Books [website] by Ready Set Grow
- Bilingual Gardening Dictionary [PDF] by University of California Agriculture and Natural Resource
- Harvest for Healthy Kids Activity Kits
- Farm to Early Care and Education Curricula List of Resources National Farm to School Network
Activities
- Let’s Go to the Farmers’ Market! by Community Ground Works
- Farm to ECE Farmers’ Market Activity Ideas by Community Ground Works
- Farm to ECE Interest Areas for Young Children by Community Groundworks
- Pint Size Produce activities from Renewing the Countryside
- Day by Day Stories Growing Minds Farm to School
Recipes
- Chop Chop Recipes by Chop Chop
- Color Me Healthy Recipes by Color Me Healthy
- ASPHN CACFP Fruit and Veggie Snack Menu & Recipes
- Institute of Child Nutrition Step-by-Step Recipe Standardization Guide for the CACFP