Food Literacy

Nutrition Connections is a no-cost, hands-on nutrition education program that provides limited-resource families the knowledge and skills they need for better health. Programs for youth and adults. 

Browse these websites and resource collections for ideas on Farm to School activities, agricultural lesson plans, and school garden curriculum.

Teens and young adults are beginning to explore their independant likes and dislikes. Some are already making meals for family members and all are preparing to provide for themselves in the near future. Cooking provides experience in science, math and vocabulary. 

Program suggestions:

• Holding a Career Fair that includes chefs, farmers, bakers, locals from farmer markets, and other makers is an exciting way to highlight unusual career choices.
• Try a cake decorating contest, Cupcake Wars/Cookie Cake/etc.
• Host a take and Bake where teens make a dough such as cookie dough or pizza dough at the library and provide them instructions for baking the dough at home. 
• Chopped Kitchen Challenge (can be done virtually). 

Program Outlines:

"Sprinkle, Mold, Blend, Create: Cooking Programs for Teens" from the Programming Librarian blog. Sprinkle, Mold, Blend, Create

"Veggie Teens": Earth Friendly Cooking Program Veggie Teens Program

Project Share: The Project SHARE curriculum aims to build high school students' skills to reduce health disparities at the personal, family and community level. The curriculum aligns with national standards and can be used in diverse settings nationwide:  schools, libraries, community-based organizations, and community-academic partnerships.

Teen Food Literacy Curriculum

Program suggestions:

Program outlines:

• This all ages storytime from Jbrary uses diverse books and uses a lot of repetition for new language learners  Storytime Agenda     
• Talking About Food Allergies - Nemours Kid's Health.If you're looking for an approachable way to discuss food allergies, try this resource for educators from the Nemours Kid's Health website. Teacher's Guide to Food Allergies  
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Program Suggestions:

• Cookbook Club: Pick a specific cookbook or cuisine each month and have each person bring a dish from the cookbook that they chose.  They can talk about why they chose the recipe and how it turned out.  
• Explore other cultures: Each month focus on a new country.  Read a book and have patrons pair a dish to the book.
• Spice Club. Distribute a spice and recipe. Participants make and try the recipe at home and then meet (can be done virtually) to discuss the spice and recipe. 
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Cornucopia Project provides garden education to nine elementary schools, offers youth cooking classes to hundreds and operates an Educational Farm in Peterborough, NH that supplies produce to families, restaurants, food pantries, community suppers, and schools.