Connecting with FoodWIse: Community Based Nutrition Education and Healthy Living Resources for Children and Families

Amanda Miller and Morgan Peaden (state FoodWIse specialist) presented “Connecting with FoodWIse: Community Based Nutrition Education and Healthy Living Resources for Children and Families” at the 2020 Wisconsin Head Start Association (WHSA) conference.

The presentation provided an overview of the FoodWIse program, why nutrition education is so important for young children, and how the FoodWIse program partners with state and local Head Start.

The FodWIse and Head Start programs align well together. Both programs focus on the child, the family, and the community (all areas that affect a child’s health and well-being.) Both programs serve and support families from low-income families and reach a culturally diverse group. FoodWIse supports many of the federal Head Start performance standards. And, FoodWIse addresses Head Start Early Learning Outcomes. Most specifically, the goal: the child develops knowledge and skills that help promote nutritious food choices and eating habits.

The FoodWIse program partners with local Head Start sites to offer children, parents, and staff education in the areas of basic nutrition, food budgeting, and food safety. That is done in three main ways:

direct education – classes held for children, parents, or training staff
PSE – helping create positive change through policy, system, and environment. An example would be that FoodWIse staff may work with Head Start staff to encourage healthier foods or non-food items given at special events, like Valentines Day.
social marketing – promoting health through websites, billboards, etc.

The partnership between the Fond du Lac FoodWIse program and ADVOCAP Head Start has spanned more than 25 years. The majority of programs offered have been lessons on trying new foods and eating more fruits and vegetables for students in the classrooms and hands-on cooking classes for parents and their children.

Head Start teacher feedback from the recent year includes: “Thank you so much for your time coming into our classroom and sharing information about healthy fruits and vegetables with my class!” and “I really enjoy the curriculum – the children enjoyed making and trying the foods that you had them try.”