Childhood Nutrition Day
Childhood Nutrition Day and International Chefs Day was a huge success this year. ACF awarded 11 grants supporting outreach events in October to chefs and chapters across the nation, educating more than 3,000 children and families about childhood hunger, proper nutrition and obesity issues.
While Childhood Nutrition Day is celebrated only during the month of October, use this excitement to continue to reinforce proper nutrition and healthy choices in school-aged children throughout the year. Visit our programs section for tools to implement an awareness activity and make a difference in your community.
Thank you to all the chefs and chapters for participating in Childhood Nutrition Day. Special thank you as well to local partners and sponsors, for their support in making these events a success.
ACF Coastal Virginia Chapter
ACF Coastal Virginia Chapter held two Childhood Nutrition Day events at the Old Dominion University Child Learning and Research Center. Chapter members helped the children with fruit and vegetables tastings that included fruit and vegetable smoothies, fresh pressed apple juice, and vegetable samplings.
ACF Columbus Chapter
Members of the ACF Columbus Chapter hosted a Rainbow Taste Test event at Millennium Middle School in Columbus Ohio. Each student was served a try of eight fruits and vegetables with dips. Two nutrition beverages were blended using whole fruits and dark greens from the community school tower gardens.
ACF Gulf Coast Culinary Association
ACF Gulf Coast Culinary Association hosted a Childhood Nutrition Day event with over 600 elementary children. There were booths with chefs giving nutrition facts and one main action station. It was truly a delight to see the smiles on the kids!
ACF Professional Chefs Association of South Jersey
ACF Professional Chefs Association of South Jersey enjoyed sharing their knowledge with students from local schools. Members had lively interactions and conversations with the students about healthy, nutritional eating, and about making the right choices in food selection. They used fresh fruits, vegetables and whole grain pasta to make delicious, healthy meals and snacks that everyone enjoyed.
ACF Triad Chapter, NC, Inc.
ACF Triad Chapter, NC, Inc. celebrated Childhood Nutrition Day with a nutritional breakfast for over 1,000 students, family members, teacher, community leaders, college students and culinarians at four Head Start locations in the North Carolina Triad area.
Vince Blancato, ACF Tampa Bay Chapter
Vince Blancato, ACF Tampa Bay Chapter, gave a presentation to students at local elementary schools on the nutritional values of the five food color groups: blue/purple, green, white, red, yellow/orange. He passed out samples of foods from each color group and talked about the importance of eating healthy.
Michael Garahan
Michael Garahan hosted several Green Goddess Smoothie tastings in the community, and introduced Scouts to Colors of the Plate at a campout. During the campout, they prepared and cooked spaghetti squash, baby portabella mushrooms and roasted garlic on the campfire, and tasted rambutan, golden kiwis, red pears, dragon fruit, snap peas and cherub tomatoes.
Laurie Hartfelder
Laurie Hartfelder conducted a Childhood Nutrition Day event at the YMCA afterschool program. Several students assisted with the measuring and preparation in making pumpkin waffles. During story time, Chef Hartfelder read the book Pancakes, Pancakes by Eric Carle to help the children realize where the ingredients used to make the pumpkin waffles came from on the farm. Each student then decorated a mini pumpkin and took them home along with a recipe for the pumpkin waffles.
Kim Larson
Kim Larson supported Childhood Nutrition Day by making healthy smoothies for over 350 students at a local middle school during lunch time.
North Dakota State College of Science Culinary Arts
North Dakota State College of Science Culinary Arts students, faculty and outreach specialists hosted 4th, 5th and 6th graders from local schools for the Rainbow Taste Test activty. The first year culinary students made several dips and smoothies for the students to try. They had “Did you Know” facts to share with the students as they circulated around the room to see the cooking demos. Each participant left with a recipe book with all of the items featured.