Identifying a surge in demand for nutrition education for 3-to 5-year olds, Dairy Council of California now provides thousands of preschool children across the state with healthy eating nutrition instruction.
The preschool nutrition education resource packet includes activities that teach preschoolers about eating a balanced diet. There are also easy-to-prepare recipes for parents, most of which include dairy foods as ingredients, and parent “tip sheets” explaining the importance of breakfast, how to feed their children healthy snacks and how to be a good nutritional role model. Many of the resources in the packet are also printed in Spanish.
“The packet provides a great opportunity for us to reach preschool children with information about nutrition and dairy’s role in a healthy diet when their eating habits are first being formed,” said Dairy Council of California CEO Peggy Biltz.
Dairy Council created the packet for preschool students, teachers and parents after its trends tracking process uncovered a surprisingly high demand by educators for materials designed for this age group — and the fact that virtually no materials existed to meet that need.
Once the packets were developed, the California Department of Education offered Dairy Council a mailing list of 800 Head Starts and other state-supported preschools and also invited Dairy Council to present the packet to 500 preschool administrators at the Child Care Nutrition Roundtable in Palm Springs last fall.
“The response has been amazing. Our initial printing of 1,000 packets went immediately,” said Biltz. “We’ve already distributed 2,000 packets and we will be printing another 1,000 this winter.”
For more information about the preschool nutrition education resource packet, or to request packets for a preschool in your area, visit www.dairycouncilofca.org.
