Food Coaching Ideas

Involve Kids

Offer Fruit and Veggie Tastings. Tasting, in the presence of peers, can have a positive impact on choice. Also, kids love to vote, so if they can help decide if it goes on the menu, it’s a Win-Win!
Invite kids to Jazz up the Names. Invite kids to help invent fun food names for the menu.
Challenge kids to color. Enlist kids to think up ways to make meals colorful and fun.
Hold a Jr. Chef Recipe Contest. Ask kids to invent a yummy and colorful fruit or veggie recipe. Hold a taste test, have kids vote and add the winning recipe to the menu.
Invite Kids to Share a Favorite Family Recipe. Sharing makes kids feel special, plus they are much more likely to eat what they help plan or prepare.

PowerUp the Scene

Food presentation and environment (the lunch room) are powerful influencers of choice. Create an environment where choice rules! Make the better choice the more attractive choice, not the only choice. VERY SUBTLE changes can have a BIG effect on what and how much kids eat.

Set the scene. Fill the lunch room with fun and color (fruit/veggie posters, table graphics, etc.) Research shows that pictures of kids eating fruit and vegetables can help kids eat them too!
We eat with our eyes and nose! If it smells good and looks good, kids are more likely to eat it. Just putting fruit into an attractive bowl near the check-out increases uptake.
Make it easy to choose. Placing fruits and vegetables, at the beginning of the lunch line or where they are easy to grab will increase uptake. Just as, placing desserts or competitive foods where they are harder to reach or see will decrease amount taken.
Offer variety. Guide a child’s choice. Choice is important to children and having the option to choose can have a big impact on behavior.
Given the choice of either carrots or celery, 89% of children will choose and eat carrots. But if kids are given only carrots without a choice, just 69% will eat them.
Increasing the number of different vegetables or fruits offered within a single salad may lead kids to consume a greater amount.
Nudges to move kids toward choosing — and eating— more fruits and vegetables.

Surveys and interviews with students have found

When food looks like it's been freshly prepared and not overly packaged, they find it more appealing and are more likely to eat it.
More likely to eat a vegetable if it's served as an ingredient in an entrée — rather than as a side.
Young children prefer bite-sized apple slices to whole fruit.
Bring in a farmer to show how food grows. This can help kids gain a greater appreciation for where food comes from, which may in turn help encourage them to make better choices.

Keep in mind… it’s only nutritious, if kids eat it! Most kids will not notice small changes that lead them to eat better. And even if they do notice, they will appreciate it more when — they have choices, get to be involved and it’s fun!

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