Exploring Grains: Bring Culture to
Class with Nutrition Education

April 2, 2004 - Nutrition education during school age years helps children develop and practice healthy eating habits that carry into adulthood. With classroom teachers pressed for time and striving to prepare students for standardized testing, what better way to integrate nutrition than to also incorporate reading, language arts, social studies and culture? Child nutrition professionals can be valuable partners and resources to teachers in need of nutrition expertise and resources.

Nutrition educators and school health experts recommend that nutrition education be tied into school meals.

Here are some key points to consider when planning nutrition education:

• Nutrition education should be simple, fun and age-appropriate
• Educational activities should be interactive and hands-on whenever possible.
• Children should be encouraged to contribute ideas
• Children should have opportunities to practice and participate in meal planning, cooking, taste testing, and evaluating foods whenever possible
• Incorporating nutrition education into hands-on meal preparation will help you bridge the gap between nutrition education and food 

Since children are your customers, child nutrition professionals can benefit greatly from introducing them to school meals, learning about their food preferences, encouraging them to eat the health foods available in the cafeteria, and trying out new products. What better way can child nutrition professionals do this than to get involved in classroom nutrition education? Read on for suggested ways to tie a particular food group, grains, to the cafeteria and the classroom.

Grains Bring Energy
Though popular diets of late have given carbohydrates a bad connotation, grains are the building block of energy and provide many important vitamins and minerals. In particular, whole grains bring fiber, iron, and B vitamins. Children need lots of energy and nutrients to learn and fuel activity.

Grains are an integral part of school breakfast and school lunch and should also be an important part of meals and snacks that children bring from home. Promote whole grains by introducing them into the classroom and school meals. Teach children the value of whole grains. USDA’s Food and Nutrition Service and the National Agricultural Library have many nutrition education resources and tools available.

Reading About Grains and Culture
Check out these three books to take children on a journey through food and culture with corn, rice and bread. In addition to providing a forum to explore all the different foods that can be made with basic grain fibers, these books can introduce the foods and cultures of America , Latin America and Asia .

Corn is Maize: The Gift of the Indians
By Aliki (1996)
These are just some foods made from corn. This story describes how Native American farmers found and nourished a wild grass plant that has become an important part of current American diets. Corn based products have become popular throughout America in different forms—tacos, tamales, and tortillas in Mexican and Southwestern foods, the corn on the cob, corn dressing, and corn pudding of traditional Thanksgiving and harvest menus, and many Midwestern favorites.
Age: 5-8

Everybody Cooks Rice
By Norah Dooley (1992)
Explore the neighborhood with a child searching for his brother to discover how rice is prepared in different households according to different cultural traditions.
Age: 7-11

Bread, Bread, Bread
By Ann Morris Morrow (1993)
Bread has been a building block of nutrition and diet for centuries. This book explores baking, sharing, and eating bread. With full-color photographs and few words, this book is also appropriate for preschool children.
Age: Preschool to Age 8

Bread is for Eating
By David Gershator (1998)
With English text and a Spanish lyrical refrain, this book celebrates the importance of bread from planting the seeds to kneading the dough. This book may be a great addition to music classes or present a way to bring music into the traditional classroom setting. With artwork described as “earth-toned,” this book could also blend well with social studies or earth sciences.

Getting Started
Many child nutrition professionals are already positioning themselves as both nutrition experts and resources for classroom teachers and other school personnel. If you are thinking of ways to expand your role into the classroom, consider

• Working with classroom teachers and librarians to find nutrition-related books and share them with the students
• Partnering with students in developing nutrition education presentations
• Preparing theme meals highlighting or promoting a food, culture or nutrition message
• Developing cafeteria taste-tests -- ask students to evaluate new foods.
• Contacting local foundations or businesses to ask if they may be willing to donatebooks or money to purchase books for schools that may not have these materials available in the library.
• Checking out cooperative extension agencies, state child nutrition agencies, or regional offices to access nutrition education lending libraries