What can parents do at school and home?

What goes on in the kitchen at home is just as important as what goes on in the school cafeteria. You are an important part of helping your children learn to make good choices when eating family meals. Menu planning, shopping and food preparation are great opportunities for you to spend time with your children. Nothing steers kids toward healthy food like being part of the process. Want to do more?

Get Involved at School

• Call your school district and find out who is in charge of the district Wellness Committee. Volunteer to serve on the committee as a parent or community member.
• Call the food service director of your school district and find out about the program in your school buildings. Check out the district website and look at the lunch menus. Volunteer to help make some healthy changes in your child’s school cafeteria.
• Check out www.smarterlunchrooms.org and our suggestions to find some low or no cost ways to re-design the serving area in your cafeteria to steer kids to healthier meal choices.

Stay Involved At Home

• Have regular family meals: kids who take part in regular family meals are more likely to eat fruits, vegetables and grains and less likely to snack on unhealthy foods.
• Be a role model by eating healthy yourself.
• Avoid battles over food.
• Involve kids in the process, especially menu planning and cooking.
• YOU decide which foods to buy and when to serve them: make sure what you bring into the house is really what you want your family eating.
• Let kids make choices from several healthy food options: they will enjoy exercising their freedom of choice and will gain valuable experience in developing healthy eating habits.
• Encourage drinking plain water in place of high calorie low nutrient sodas or sweetened juices and juice drinks.
• DON’T make “cleaning your plate” an issue at mealtime, or use mealtimes or food as a reward or discipline. Use verbal praise, a hug or other non-food techniques as a reward.
• Look at your school’s monthly lunch calendar along with your child. Discuss lunchroom meal choices together, prior to your child going to school.  Your child is more likely to choose a veggie at school if you have talked about it before hand.
• Kids are more likely to enjoy items that they are familiar with.  Note which veggies are offered at your child’s school, and offer those same veggies at home.  Although your child may not like a particular veggie at first, continue to offer it!  The more times a child sees a vegetable, the more likely he or she is to try it.