Designed to be done in the home, the Food Explorers Club is for parents who are seeking quality ways to provide their children, ages 8 to 11, with engaging, healthy eating activities.
The Food Explorers Club is free to join.
When you join Spoons Across America’s Food Explorers Club, your children will engage in activities that center around fresh ingredients and hands-on cooking experiences. After signing up for this free program, you will receive an email once a month with a new activity that focuses on a selected healthy eating theme and culture. A recipe is included that encourages your children to explore, prepare, and taste healthier foods and discover new cultures across America and around the world.
What is the Food Explorers Club?
When you sign up for the Food Explorers Club, you will receive an email once a month that contains a themed recipe for you to do with your children, and activity sheets for them to do independently. The Club helps your children to become independent and inquisitive taste explorers by discovering new foods. The activities are more than trying new flavors, but also trying foods with new textures and aromas that help children to create positive and healthy food memories in a fun hands-on way. The Food Explorers Club encourages your children to be curious, to get involved with cooking, and to be excited about trying new foods. Our experience in the classroom has shown that when children taste new foods they develop healthier eating habits that promote good health throughout their lives.
What are some of the selected themes that will be taught in the Food Explorers Club?
Elements of taste, local and seasonal food, sugar content in beverages, healthy snacking, food agriculture, eating different parts of a plant, food culture, to name a few.
What materials do we need to do the program?
To help your children through their food exploration, we recommend using child-safe knives and a child-friendly measuring cup and spoon set. However, you can use what you have in your kitchen, but remember that they should be an appropriate size for children to cut, scoop, measure, and pour as they do the recipes. You will also need basic kitchen tools, such as an oven, skillet, cooking sheet, and cutting board. Many child-sized culinary tools can readily be found online. Additionally, each lesson will require some food items. The recipes are designed to include vegetables and fruits that can be found in any grocery store. You will also need access to a color printer to print out the activity sheets, however, we designed the activity sheets so they will work if printed in black and white.
What age group is recommended for this program?
The Club is for children ages 8-11. Depending upon the age of your child, you may need to adjust how you implement the lessons. Younger children will need more support with food preparation, knife skills, and understanding concepts, whereas older children will be able to be more independent in their work.
What is the cost of the program?
The cost to join the Food Explorers Club is free.