Let’s Get Cooking with Kids on Food Day!

Food Day is a nationwide celebration of healthy, affordable, and sustainably produced food, and a grassroots campaign for better food policies. It builds all year long and culminates on October 24.

Food Day aims to help people Eat Real. That means cutting back on sugar drinks and overly salted packaged foods in favor of vegetables, fruits, whole grains, and sustainably raised protein.

In 2013, Food Day has a special focus on activities aimed at teaching kids to cook. We’ll never be able to match the resources of America’s junk-food manufacturers that discourage cooking. But all over the country, activities are underway to ensure that kids are as familiar with vegetable peelers, cutting boards, and mixing bowls as they are with iPads, iPhones, and video games. Thousands of kids will discover a new vegetable, chop their first salad, or make their first soup on October 24.

Here are a few suggestions for how you can celebrate Food Day with your students or family:

Join us on Food Day to teach kids to cook around the country, at school or at home, and register your cooking class on the national map of Food Day events with the title “Let’s Get Cooking with Kids.” Check out the recipes from a new cookbook, 20 Recipes to Get Kids Cooking!
Use Food Day School Curriculum for the nutrition and food education lessons in the classroom.
Spread the word about Food Day with this social media post:

Add your voice to support eating real! Join our October 24 #FoodDay2013 #ThunderClap on Twitter: http://thndr.it/19q8OAb_

You can also find an event in your hometown or get in touch with Food Day organizers in your area. For more information, visit www.foodday.org.

Lilia Smelkova is Food Day Campaign Manager at the Center for Science in the Public Interest.

The Creative Kitchen™, LLC, teaches children about food and how to cook in a fun, safe, and educational manner. Targeting families with children ages two to teen, the company focuses on teaching, writing creative content and curriculum, special events, recipe development, spokesperson work, webisode production and consulting to present educational and entertaining content through food-related activities. The founder, Cricket Azima, is an expert in cooking for and with children. She inspires kids to express themselves creatively through food and cooking, while complementing lessons with traditional educational material such as social studies, math, arts, science, and more. Visit www.thecreativekitchen.com for more information.