The first five years of a child’s life are vital for developing healthy eating habits and building a strong, healthy mind and body. Foodbank WA’s Food Sensations® for Children program, made possible through a Telethon grant, provides parents and carers with essential skills to help their young children enjoy a variety of nutritious foods.
The program also helps reduce mealtime stress by equipping parents with the knowledge, skills, and confidence to guide their young children to become confident eaters.
Foodbank WA CEO Kate O’Hara said, “Every parent appreciates that early childhood is a crucial time to establish healthy eating behaviours for optimal health, growth and cognitive development. The Food Sensations for Children program addresses the challenges faced by many parents by providing practical information and skills to make mealtimes positive and improve health outcomes for young children.”
“We recognise it can be difficult for some parents who are not used to food budgeting, have limited cooking experience, limited knowledge or are time-poor to ensure they can provide healthy meals for their young families”.
The program covers a wide range of topics including healthy eating for the whole family, types and textures of foods that will help children grow and develop, how to raise children to be confident eaters, how to read food labels, preparing healthy lunchboxes, keeping food safe, how to shop and feed a family on a budget and how to cook and prepare quick, healthy, low-cost family meals.
Ms O’Hara said “This program really is transformative for parents. It improves food literacy skills like how to plan, manage, select, prepare meals, parenting feeding practices and dietary intake.”
“Our research shows that 70% of participants reported that they had improved their parenting feeding practices (e.g. reducing screen time at mealtimes) while 74% improved their confidence and food literacy behaviours.”
This program is available online and in-person and free to attend for parents. A massive thank you to Telethon for making this proven program available for the WA community.
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