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Get Your Cook Involved
February 9, 2007
Learn politeness from the impolite.
-Egyptian proverb
-Egyptian proverb
In her Exchange article, "A Comprehensive Approach to Addressing Childhood Obesity in Early Childhood Programs," Joyce Anderson offers 10 strategies for addressing childhood obesity in early childhood programs. One of these strategies was to get the cook involved...
- Your cook can be a valuable asset in helping to adapt menu choices that are healthy and enjoyable for children.
- Your cook’s attitude of optimism and pleasure in serving a well-prepared meal positively influences children’s perceptions of healthy food choices.
- Encourage and implement family-style food service on a consistent basis. Family- style food service can encourage more than social-emotional skills. In the relaxed atmosphere of “dining” with their teacher and fellow classmates, children are offered wonderful “teachable moments” that encourage healthy food choices and nutrition lessons.
- Be aware that family-style food service requires more work in putting menu items in child-size bowls and usually more utensils to wash.
- When cooks know and understand the needs of young children in relation to mealtime, it is easier to implement family-style food service.
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Comments (3)
Displaying All 3 CommentsNOCAC
Defiance, Ohio, United States
Limiting serving size negates "family style". The whole purpose is to make children understand the food is available and encourage to try new things. Menus should be healthy. Children should be comfortable with their serving size and allowed to help themselves .Why do the teachers feel they need to control this?We implement nutrition lessons to the children then lead by example and encouragement.In overweight children,I think not being able to help themselves sets off a panic.Bye the way, why are we using 1980's standards? Population has gone up and I think they have lowered the standards set for overweight/underweight.Seems we could do better statistically speaking..and acceptance of different sizes being normal.The best pyramid I have seen is the Harvard Healthy Eating Pyramid.
CCR&R
Des Moines, Iowa, United States
This is a wonderful article and I will use it for teaching nutrition classes. However, it would be nice to use the new pyramid since it has changed and the photo shows the old pyramid.
Small World E.L.C.
Salina, Kansas, United States
I think serving family style is the way to go, but my teachers disagree on one point. They are very concerned that no child takes more of any food that any other child. They want to dictate to the children exactly how much of any given food to take. I feel that this almost negates the "family style" idea. What do others do about this? Am I being unreasonable in letting the children decide how much they want? All advice is welcome.
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