This post is sponsored by Nestlé
How many vegetables can your child identify? Do they know where they are from? How they grow? How they benefit us? As part of their Healthy Active Kids program, Nestlé recently conducted a survey of 1300 parents around their knowledge of nutrition and two-thirds of them didn’t realise their children should be getting five serves of vegetables and legumes and day. 80% were concerned about their children having a healthy, balanced diet.
Growing up our school taught us a lot about healthy eating- we even had a little veggie garden that we would all help in. We loved it! We knew all about the types of fruit and vegetables and how they helped our bodies. We especially loved that carrots helped us see in the dark! During the survey, 92% of parents and carers thought it was important for kids to learn about nutrition at school.
Today a lot of kids are no longer learning about the benefits of fresh food. With parents stressed and busy to the max and the convenience of pre-packaged, processed foods, there are lots of kids missing out on vital food education. With this in mind, the Nestlé Healthy Active Kids program is helping Australia’s teachers and parents work together to educate children. This program was developed in partnership with the Australian Institute of Sport and the online component features over 80 free lesson plans, written by Australian teachers and tailored to State and Territory curriculums for Health and Physical Education. The website also features videos of Australian athletes, games for parents to play at home and competitions for teachers to win resources for their schools.
To help get kids into the kitchen and learning about good food the Nestlé Healthy Active Kids program, the Australian Institute of Sport (AIS) and Get Kids Cooking partnered to provide parents and carers the opportunity to nominate their child’s school to win The Kitchen Kart™, a fully equipped mobile teaching kitchen valued at $25,000. The winning entrant will also receive a $1,000 VISA Load&Go Gift Card to go towards keeping their family healthy and active!
The Kitchen Kart™ is a compact, fully-portable mobile kitchen complete with oven, stovetop, AND the kitchen sink. Equipped with all the necessary cooking tools and equipment, The Kitchen Kart™ makes it easy for teachers to deliver cooking classes in a hall, covered area, class or staff rooms – or even in the garden.
To enter your school in the Kitchen Kart™ competition visit https://www.healthyactivekids.com.au/kitchen-kart-competition/
For more information on the Nestlé Healthy Active Kids program visit https://www.healthyactivekids.com.au/
Lorelei
What a great competition, I'm definitely going to enter. I'd love to win that for our school and actually teach the kids how to cook the food they have just started growing in the school veggie garden. It's amazing how kids can be so different in terms of trying vegetables. I have one child that will try anything and another that doesn't even like to look at veggies plus a couple in between.
Maxabella
This is brilliant. I think life skills like cooking should be taught in primary as well as high school. We obviously teach these things in the home, but bringing them into schools gives them the importance they deserve, plus I think it helps to break down gender stereotypes. Kids are actually generally interested in their health and nutrition and cooking is so much fun.
Sara | Kid Magazine
Such a great idea! My toddler loves to "help" me cook. I get her to help by doing things like smelling the herbs or holding the vegetables. It keeps her hands busy, she thinks she is doing something to help me and I can teacher her about the food we eat! Having said that, I know time is precious and it's easy when she is little to keep her interested so a resource like this is great for school kids.
Seana
Great initiative. I do worry a lot about a couple of my fussy kids. It's great to have schools and parents working together to educate the kids about eating well. Not easy either!