A Cool Food Program
The Early Foodi Program makes it super easy for educators to teach little learners about nutrition and, for a limited time, Food is Cool is offering $100 off the program!
BY HEJIRA CONVERY, KINDICARE
There’s nothing quite so heart-warming as the sight of a pre-schooler enthusiastically tucking into their fresh veg, or happily trying something new (hello hummus!); and although under-fives are often far fussier than this, educators play a special role in making food interesting and appealing to them.
Many early learning centres have flourishing vegetable gardens, hungry worm farms and wonderfully creative chefs to open the minds of even the harshest little food critic, and the Early Foodi Program is another great way to empower and excite little learners.
This step-by-step nutrition program has been specially designed for the early learning environment, and Early Foodi makes it super easy for educators to share the wonders of great nutrition with ages three to six.
The program is backed by science and early learning experience.
It was developed by the co-founders of Food is Cool, Dr Flavia Fayet-Moore (a nutrition scientist) and Miss Sinead (a teacher); and Early Foodi is a holistic program that can be rolled out in any early learning service for the benefit of everyone!
Dr Flavia says, “We wanted to offer a different kind of nutrition education, so instead of just designing flashcards and sharing a food pyramid, or telling children that they need to eat more vegetables because it’s healthy, we have created a whole suite of engaging downloadable resources that empower children, educators, parents and other care-givers to have a positive relationship with food for life. It also fills the huge gap that exists in nutrition education for the early years.
“Our program explains the best ways to talk to early learners about food and how to empower them to eat (almost) anything. We also provide a lot of evidence-based tips and tricks to not only ‘teach’ nutrition in the early childhood environment, but to embrace it more holistically, including with role-modelling and language usage.”
Every centre that signs up to the Early Foodi Program gets access to 200 pages of cool food content.
This equates to 12+ hours of Learning Opportunities and there’s a focus on shared language that speaks to children, families and educators.
So, for example, instead of saying, “We can’t eat this [food] because it’s not healthy,” the program uses empowering terminology like, “This [food] is not on the menu today.”
The content includes resources linked to multiple curriculum areas, open-ended learning opportunities and STEAM resources.
In addition to the ready-made teaching resources and parent communication, the Early Foodi Program also offers on-going professional development for educators.
The program is linked to the Early Years Learning Framework, National Quality Standard and each service’s Quality Improvement Plan, and there’s a private Foodi Facebook Group where members can share their experiences, questions and/or resource requests.
There’s more info about the Early Foodi Program here, and if you’re keen to sign up your centre, then it’s great to know that Food is Cool is currently offering a discount!
The Early Foodi Program usually costs $900 per year, per centre, but from now until 15 November, 2023, Food is Cool is offering $100 off the program for the first year.
To pay only $800 for your first annual membership, purchase the program at https://foodiscool.com/our-program then enter the code ECA2023 at checkout.
And if you’re interested in signing up numerous centres, contact the Food is Cool team to ask about a group discount.
Yay!
