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Use Cooking Matters resources to inspire families to make healthy, affordable food choices.
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Download free, easy-to-use plans for leading food skills activities in your community.
Engage kids in hands-on activities that help them develop skills in cooking and food choice.
Engage kids in early childhood education settings in simple activities that help them learn about new foods and make healthy food choices, including food identification, tasting, food origins, and culture.
Engage adults, kids, teens, or families in a variety of community settings in food skills activities.
Engage food pantry visitors in simple food skills activities designed for a food distribution setting.
Help caregivers plan and prepare quick, budget-friendly, chaos-free meals at home.
Encourage caregivers to make smart choices about the snacks they serve their kids.
Help caregivers feel confident that they can create a healthy home food environment in their baby’s first year.
Encourage caregivers to adjust recipes to maximize their food resources and meet their family’s needs.
Encourage caregivers to incorporate more fruits and vegetables into family meals and snacks.
Encourage caregivers to offer more water to the children in their care and limit beverages with added sugar.
Encourage caregivers to work together with the kids in their care to make healthy meals and snacks that everyone will enjoy.
Fun activities and recipes for parents, teachers, caregivers and volunteers to use with the young kids in their lives!
Taste Testers help your kids find new words to describe what they are eating besides “it’s yucky”.
Tasting Bingo offers a fun way to help kids become more familiar with and likely to try fruits and vegetables!
Tasting The Rainbow is a handout for kids to track which color of fruits and vegetables they’ve eaten in a day.
Make Meal Time Fun Time offers kids’ mealtime conversion topics.
Make Meal Time Fun Time #2 encourages families to have fun conversation together at mealtime.
Family Dinner Ingredient Hunt helps kids practice “serving” themselves and associate vegetables with their names, shapes and colors.
Sugar Shocker helps kids learn to identify how much sugar is in the foods and drinks they consume, and encourages healthier options.
Make Your Plate a Rainbow helps kids discover just how tasty colorful fruits and vegetables can be.
Breakfast Boost teaches kids to identify the food groups in their breakfast.
Happy Whole-idays is holiday-themed and encourages kids to put their detective skills to work to find wholesome whole grains.
Don't Yuck My Yum teaches kids that trying new things takes practice, just like learning to read!
Finish the Stir-Fry lets kids and adults see how versatile this dish can be!
Food Rater Use this activity when kids are trying new foods!
Snack Board Builder shows that snacking can be fun, and fit the needs of everyone in the family.
Taco Time helps get kids involved by letting them build-their-own meals.
Tasting Chart Hang this chart on your fridge to keep track of what your family has tried throughout the month!
Veggie Face-Off is a fun way for families to discuss and vote on favorite veggies.
What Does it Feel Like encourages kids to explore the texture of their foods.
Use the resources below to explore key elements of successful Cooking Matters facilitation.
Together we can inspire families and caregivers to make healthy, affordable food choices. Working with participants is a fun, creative and rewarding experience and facilitating Cooking Matters is really just creating a small community of shared knowledge and story-telling around food.
As you navigate these materials you will find information that develops your skills as a facilitator—someone who actively listens to and guides far-ranging conversations toward meaningful conclusions.Cooking Matters participants (members of our community who are looking for additional support or information when it comes to making food choices for their families) rely on facilitators to honor their lived experiences and provide a safe space to explore new ideas.
We appreciate the depth of experience you bring to Cooking Matters but ask that you still engage with each portion of the training. This ensures a consistent quality of experience for participants across the country.
What should I do after I complete the training?After you’ve reviewed all three concepts, visit our Community Resources page to explore opportunities to begin connecting with participants.
Where can I find the Cooking Matters Core?
The Cooking Matters Core and additional facilitator training videos can be found at cookingmatters.org/core
These four topics address the fundamentals of facilitating meaningful discussions with Cooking Matters participants.
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