Kids Who Love Food
Posted: June 3, 2011
Categories: Good Food Ideas for Kids
Good Food Ideas for Kids (GFIK) was created for parents and guardians to find tools to engage their children in the issues surrounding healthy, sustainable and equitable food. For many parents, this can be a significant challenge – a brief look at some of the infographics and videos in the GFIK Gallery makes it fairly obvious that many children’s food literacy comes predominantly from fast food advertisements, rather than from their family, school or community. That’s why it’s great to see children who take a proactive approach to educate themselves and others about food issues and who love to eat their vegetables.
Birke Baehr was 11 when he did a Tedx talk about the problems with the food system. He says he, like many children, was lured by the “colourful packaging and plastic toys” offered by fast food chains but that the more he learned about genetic engineering, concentrated animal feeding operations and pesticides/herbicides, the more he started thinking about an alternative system and how he could change his own behaviour. “We can pay the farmer or we can pay the hospital,” says Birke, urging people to understand the true costs of food and to shop at farmers’ markets. Check out the video below.
Kaynan Goldberg, author of the blog Veggies Go Crunch, is a 12-year-old locavore who has a clear love affair with food. Kaynan’s blog explores this love of real, local food; she posts recipes, new food discoveries, farmers’ market stories and more. And while many North American kids can’t even identify basic fruits and vegetables (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bGYs4KS_djg), Kaynan is clearly an expert: “Carolina Ruby sweet potatoes . . . are the best sweet potatoes ever,” she proclaims. She argues that local food is fresher, more nutritious and tastier than its imported counterparts and that local varieties encourage people to try new foods.
The Missoula Coyote Choir preach similar values and have channeled their inner Bee Gees to recommend that people grow their own food. This is a fantastic example of how to engage children in issues they may have otherwise found boring and to teach them early what good food really means – also, they are adorable. Their music video is below.
One thing I was most struck by on Veggies Go Crunch was Kaynan’s statement, “I love going to the farmers’ market. It’s fun.” And how wonderful is that?