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FY 2025 Food Program Training Introduction: Growing Adventurous Eaters
October 15th, 2024Brianna Tobritzhofer, MS, RD, LD, Nutrition Manager
Food Program Training season is almost upon us! This program year, annual training will take place in February 2025. Trainings will continue to provide 2 hours of Develop-approved continuing education and fulfill the annual CACFP and Civil Rights training requirements.
This year’s theme, Growing Adventurous Eaters, is about how to navigate selective eating in children. As a childcare provider, we know the health and nutrition of the kids in your care is one of your top priorities. This training will equip child care providers with the knowledge and tools to promote healthy eating habits in children while fostering an adventurous attitude toward eating.
This year’s theme, Growing Adventurous Eaters, is about how to navigate selective eating in children. As a childcare provider, we know the health and nutrition of the kids in your care is one of your top priorities. This training will equip child care providers with the knowledge and tools to promote healthy eating habits in children while fostering an adventurous attitude toward eating.
2025 Food Program Training Goals
The overall goals of FY 2025’s group training, Food Explorers: Growing Adventurous Eaters, are for providers to:
Describe how to create meals and snacks that meet CACFP guidelines.
Participate in hands-on activities for engaging children in trying unfamiliar foods.
Review nutrition updates and the CACFP crediting information.
Receive required CACFP training elements and Civil Rights (including reviewing meal patterns, meal counts, claims submission and review procedures, record keeping requirements, and reimbursement system).
Ask questions related to USDA program regulations and guidance.
Combatting Picky Eating: Where to Start
Picky eating can be complex, and every child is different as to what strategies work and which ones don’t. There is no one-size-fits-all approach. During Food Program Training, we will go over a variety of ways to work with your selective eaters. Sometimes it is a matter of trial and error to see what approaches work with your kids.
It’s also important to consider division of responsibility as a provider. Remember, your role is to provide healthy foods at consistent times, encourage (but not force) children to eat, trust appetites, and be a good role model. The role of the child is to decide how much and which foods to eat. This means that sometimes, they may not eat anything at all—which is okay!
Once you have division of responsibility established, you can start practicing strategies to lessen picky eating and boost the nutrition of children in your care. Start with these tips:
Engage Kids in Mealtimes. Allow kids to help you with prepping, serving, and cleaning up after meals and snacks. Leading up to a meal, talk about the foods that will be served so kids know what to expect and become more curious about trying new foods. During the meal, talk about where the foods come from and why they are healthy.
Consistency is Key. Kids thrive on routine in all aspects of life, especially with meals! Establish habits leading up to and following meal time, such as washing hands, setting the table, and cleaning up. Staying on a routine will prevent kids from being overwhelmed, and make them more likely to explore the foods on their plate.
Make Food a Part of Your Daily Activities. Mealtime shouldn’t be the only time that children are exposed to food. You can talk and read about foods throughout the day, incorporate it into arts and crafts, and use sensory play to get kids used to new foods before eating them.
Take it Slow. A gradual approach to picky eating is more likely to be successful. Introduce new foods one at a time and focus on that one food for a while so kids have multiple exposures to it. It takes time for little tastebuds to adjust to new flavors, so be patient and you will see progress.
Learn More!
Attend Virtual Food Program Training in early 2025 to learn more picky eating strategies and connect with other child care providers that manage picky eating. Stay tuned for more details!