Families

Help your family make healthy choices together.

As the decision maker in your household, you play an important role in guiding your family to build healthy habits. Use these tips, resources and tools to help you along the way.

Activity Ideas

Make your own food art and show kids that healthy foods can be beautiful and tasty.
Grow a family garden. Get kids of all ages involved in meals with gardening. Start small, with a window herb box in your kitchen or a garden in your yard.
Food Critic Activity: Kids are more likely to try new foods when they take the lead. In this activity, kids pick a new food at the store, taste it, and rate it like a food critic.
Kid’s Restaurant Activity: Let kids be the chef! They can use this printable template to plan out the meal and design a menu.

Mealtime Tips

Enjoy a meal together with your family. It is a great way to connect and share. Here are some mealtime ideas to try:

Turn off the TV and ask the family to place their phones in a “parking spot” away from the table.
Have everyone share what they did during the day. Ask what made you laugh or what you did for fun?
Try new foods at home. Kids need many chances to taste a new foods to “get used to them.”
Have adults and older kids talk about the color, feel, and flavor of foods. It will make them sound more appealing to younger kids who may be picky.
On nice days, try a change of scenery. For example, go to a nearby park for a picnic.