Little People Nutrition - Introducing Foodie Education

We are super, ridiculonku-ulously excited to announce our latest project, Foodie Education.

Foodie Education is an online video-based platform for educators, parents and carers, designed specifically for little people.

We create videos and downloadable resources that are educational about food, yet still nurturing, play based and fun.

Food education is quite different to the traditional nutrition education that is often taught in preschools and schools.

Nutrition education often focuses on the nutrition of food through categorising it into “healthy” or “unhealthy” foods or “everyday” and “sometimes” food.

Reducing food to a dichotomy is not developmentally age appropriate for young children or helpful to their decision tree of food choices.

Food is of far greater value and plays an enriching part of our culture, health and environment.

And this is where food education AND Foodie Education comes in.

We want to meet little people on this journey of exploration and support this through a holistic and nurturing food education program.

At Little People Nutrition we believe food education encompasses the notion that:

Food nourishes our bodies so we can live an active and full life.
Food connects us to people; ourselves, our families, friends, community and culture. And how we eat.
Food connects us to our environment; where food comes from and how it is raised and grown.

These concepts seamlessly align with the EYLF and the Australian Curriculum for K to 2.

From here, we create videos and downloadable materials which incorporate these ideas with Foodie Education and deliver them in three categories; Foodie tales, Exploring food and Cook together.

Foodie Tales

Foodie tales are stories which we use to initiate ideas, concepts and conversations about some or all of the values of food education.

With the trial of specific foods, research suggests that when children are read targeted storybooks, there is an increase in trial of specific foods. And then with further follow on food education using a variety of non-taste and taste sensory explorations, the trial of the specific food is compounded and increased.

This is why we often have themed stories with hero foods. We then support this exploration through Exploring food and Cook together.

Exploring Food

Early childhood is a period of rapid growth, developmentally and physically. Commonly during this period, from around 18 months of age, children also develop a reluctance to taste unfamiliar foods. This can often lead to stress amongst parents and carers, worried about the dietary behaviours and eating habits their children will develop, which can extend to adulthood.

What we do know is that repeated exposure is important. We also know that children should not be forced to eat anything.

This age is an important phase for developing a positive relationship with food, through food education and experiential, play based learning.

In this area of Exploring food, we create non-taste and taste sensory videos, as well as STEM based exploration of foods. There are accompanying downloadable resources to support these activities for the children and the adults.

The aim here is exposure and exploration, without any pressure to eat the foods.

Cook Together

This is where the children are invited to create and make their own food, alongside Mandy.

Compounding their learning and exploration of the food and concepts in the foodie tales and foodie exploration.

We create recipes and videos where the children have the opportunity to be involved in each step of their creation.

They can either cook along with Mandy or access the recipe cards and other resources to make the dish offline or scale the quantities to cook along with their class or siblings.

I do hope you enjoy our new project. Please head over to our videos here. And please head over to our supporting downloadable resources here.