2025 Nutrition Education

Nutrition is a multi-billion dollar industry with no shortage of information available to the average person. Unfortunately, not all of that information is factual or helpful. Learn ways to effectively provide factual and empowering nutrition messages at your facilities that can make lasting positive change.

Introducing children to a variety of foods promotes positive eating habits, and supports growth, development, and positive nutrition. They are more likely to have a diverse, balanced diet later in life when introduced to assorted foods, tastes, and textures in weaning and early childhood. Explore factors affecting children when trying new foods and strategies educators can use to break barriers.

Does it seem like the children in your program enjoy learning about vegetables more than they like eating them? Maybe the way they are learning about new foods isn’t preparing them to eat them. Learn ways in which you can offer nutrition education proven to help children eat new vegetables and fruits and how you can make taste tests part of your program’s routine.

Take a fun and flavorful journey that will spark your creativity in developing easy, nutritious snacks. Celebrate every day with a new snack idea. Come hungry for ideas and leave with a snack resource to help you serve a variety of foods to those in your care.

Could “picky eating” be reframed in a more positive, productive way? Examine the concept of “cautious eating” and explore how this reframe can help children and their caregivers approach food differently. Hear evidence-based practices for developing positive relationships with food, how to support extreme selective eating, and what authoritative feeding means.

Increase cultural competency by learning to plan meals and snacks to celebrate food diversity. Discover how to adopt culturally responsive feeding practices through menu development and classroom celebrations. Gain tips for creating an allergen-friendly environment and develop strategies to partner with families and the community to maintain inclusivity in all aspects of your nutrition program.

Are you prepared for the process of helping parents develop healthy eating patterns for children? Raising healthy eaters requires a deep understanding of feeding development milestones and necessary benchmark skills. From infants to toddlers, hear the latest recommendations on early feeding and safely introducing babies to family meals to assist in preventing picky eaters.

Responsive feeding is an attentive way of feeding young children that includes watching for their hunger and satiety cues. Explore adult and child roles in the division of responsibility in feeding and its impact on children’s physical and mental development.

Child care sites can help youth develop positive relationships with food and create lifelong healthy habits through nutrition education in the classroom, cafeteria, and beyond. Explore how to incorporate nutrition education across core curricula and develop a skills-based nutrition education lesson plan that can be easily incorporated into a variety of subjects.