麻豆精品

When you鈥檙e not sure what to eat,
But you want to make a healthy treat,
A delicious meal so tasty looking,
Join us鈥攚e鈥檙e Edu-Cooking!

With that jaunty jingle sung by a chorus of children鈥檚 voices, Assistant Cook Jasmine Bumps kicks off her hands-on video cooking lessons for families and children. Today鈥檚 episode of “Edu-Cooking” costars two preschool chefs in colorful aprons and matching toques who dutifully plop fruit into frozen yogurt batter and taste fresh-from-the-microwave applesauce they鈥檝e just helped Bumps make.

鈥淗oney is from bees!鈥� exclaims one of the little chefs, who then proceeds to tell Bumps everything he knows about bees as she tries good-naturedly to stir in the honey and keep the show rolling with the recipe.

The preschooler鈥檚 oversharing of bee knowledge is both adorable and is the point of the “Edu-Cooking” videos and the various programs of the Educare Learning Network 鈥� which includes the Central Maine school 鈥� that raise children and families鈥� awareness of nutrition.

鈥淥ne of the architectural features of all our schools is that they have kitchens 鈥� and many of them have cooks on site,鈥� says Cynthia Jackson, the Educare Learning Network鈥檚 executive director and senior vice president at national nonprofit Start Early. 鈥淪ome of the schools have meals prepared offsite but having an industrial-sized kitchen in each of our Educare schools allows staff to cook some meals and offer cooking classes for the kids and their parents.

鈥淲e start with good food鈥攈ealthy meals and snacks,鈥� Jackson says, 鈥渂ut we also want to build an understanding of nutritious food 鈥� where it comes from, how to grow it, and how to prepare it.鈥� Jackson cites a new study from that found when schools fully align their school meal nutrition standards with the , they see improvement in students鈥� health, well-being and overall academic performance.

The national Educare Learning Network provides high-quality early education via 25 independent birth to 5 schools in under-resourced communities across the U.S. Educare schools can be found in urban, suburban, rural and tribal communities across 15 states, the District of Columbia, and the Winnebago Tribe of Nebraska Reservation.

A unifying theme in all the schools is the emphasis on healthy eating鈥攖hough individual schools tailor their approach to that theme according to what works for their community. For some, Jackson says, that means a school garden; for others, it may mean a container garden in the school with pots full of plants placed wherever the sun is best. Some schools grow their veggies at community gardens adjacent to the schools and others have partnerships with organizations in their communities that provide them with nutritional produce.

initiated a three-year pilot nutrition-education program In August 2022 using the pre-K (WISE) curriculum. Developed by the University of Arkansas with the U.S. Department of Agriculture, the WISE curriculum provides teachers with the tools and training to promote healthy eating behaviors in pre-K kids. In collaboration with Louisiana Technical University, Educare New Orleans uses the WISE curriculum to increase the number and variety of fruit and vegetable servings children eat. It engages families via social media as well as family meetings with small cooking sessions to help families learn to do more with fruits and vegetables. Kids who might have said they hated fruits and veggies learn to make and ask their parents for a variety of foods 鈥� even kale chips.

In addition to its “Edu-Cooking” videos, Educare Central Maine, with nearly a third of its families reporting food insecurity, runs a food pantry set up as a market where families can go shopping for food items. The “Edu-Cooking” lessons play off what鈥檚 available from the pantry, such as 鈥淲hat do I do with all this extra bread?鈥� Jasmine鈥檚 answer? 鈥淗ere鈥檚 how to make croutons and breadcrumbs! Nothing goes to waste!鈥�

“Edu-Cooking” and the Educare Market both stemmed from the pandemic and the school鈥檚 efforts to provide food and necessary supports to its families. According to Erica Palmer, Educare Central Maine鈥檚 education manager, when the pandemic began, many families passed on the food offered because they wanted to make sure it went to 鈥渢hose who are truly in need,鈥� even though they were struggling.

鈥淪o, we shifted and began to market the resources we had in a different way,鈥� Palmer says. 鈥淲e put the Educare Market out front and available to all, so our kids would encourage their caregivers to stop by every day and bring things home.

鈥淥ur ‘Edu-Cooking’ videos were a fun way to encourage families to use the food we supplied in our market in new and creative ways.鈥�

A dozen Educare schools have gardening programs that introduces the natural world to children and helps them answer the question, 鈥淲here does this come from?鈥� Jackson says most of the gardening programs are developed to include foods that fit within the cultural context of the communities they serve.

鈥淭hey鈥檙e growing things that are familiar to the parents in their own communities, as well as things they have maybe never tried before,鈥� she says. 鈥淭he parents are involved in cooking and nutrition classes, then can take fruit and vegetables from the school garden and cook them at home. They鈥檝e really taken to it鈥攁nd at some of our schools, our parents are the lead gardeners and they take great pride in that.

鈥淭he value of the gardens is that you鈥檙e teaching self-directed play and the value of sharing when they鈥檙e in the garden. The kids plant seeds and tend the plants and then harvest the food they鈥檝e grown. It is such an exciting process for them.鈥�

Educare鈥檚 Ongoing Learning and Sharing

All Educare schools are designed to be demonstration sites that not only deliver high-quality early learning, but also constantly assess and evaluate what works for the children, parents and staff.

鈥淲e鈥檙e always looking to get better,鈥� Jackson says. 鈥淲e use data to tell us which child needs intervention or additional individualization to improve their social emotional or cognitive development. We also want to know what parents might need to live their hopes and dreams. Do they want to go back to school? Get a better job? Better housing? We want to help them find the resources to do that.鈥�

Each of the schools is created through a public-private partnership, funded with public dollars such as Head Start, Early Head Start or education dollars from local school districts. The philanthropic partners, starting with an anchor funder, may have ties to the community or to the region. The core foundation of every Educare school is a collaboration鈥攂etween funders, program providers, school districts, parents and other local community partners鈥攏ot only to develop and launch the school, but to sustain it over the long run.

鈥淐ommunities call us and want to be a part of this network,鈥� Jackson says. 鈥淥ur intention isn鈥檛 necessarily to have an Educare school on every corner. Our goal is for our schools to be learning labs where we share what we鈥檙e learning with others to improve early childhood in all the organizations that are serving children of this age. Ultimately, the bottom line with the Educare Learning Network is that we want to see the funding streams in America changed so that every child from birth to kindergarten can have high-quality early learning.鈥�

Ensuring that all children have access to nutritious food is a fundamental part of that mission, Jackson says.

鈥淚t should be at the top of everyone鈥檚 list,鈥� she says. 鈥淧overty in America is hidden from those who don鈥檛 want to see it. So, if you鈥檙e not in an under-resourced community that doesn鈥檛 even have a grocery store, if you鈥檝e always had access to plenty of good food, you鈥檇 look at this emphasis on providing nutrition and say, 鈥榃hat鈥檚 going on here? What are we talking about? All families in America have breakfast, lunch and dinner, don鈥檛 they?鈥�

鈥淲ell, no they don鈥檛. So, part of what we will do is continue to weigh in, to write letters to our legislators about the importance of funding food security and nutrition in the early childhood education space.鈥�

And in the meantime, Educare will continue to start at the very beginning: good food and nutrition education from the get-go.

This story originally published on Early Learning Nation and is now archived on 麻豆精品. Learn more here.