2026 Nutrition Education

What if the outdoors could be your most powerful teaching tool? Create healthy, engaging outdoor spaces that support wellness and meet CACFP nutrition standards. Connect gardening, outdoor meals, active play and rest to daily routines that foster lifelong healthy habits for children in care.

What if school lunch was the best part of a student’s day? Explore creative strategies to modernize school cafeterias, enhance meal appeal and increase student participation. From smart tech solutions to student-led innovations and emerging nutrition trends, uncover what’s next for school food and how your district can lead the way.

In a world full of highly processed foods, where “eat healthy” can feel like a dirty word, the mission was simple: help people enjoy and eat more vegetables. Taste-testing events at our shelters turned into a hands-on adventure of discovery. The taste tests revealed methods, results and lessons that will shape future meals and menus.

The All4Kids program engages preschool-aged children in fun, hands-on activities that promote healthy eating, physical activity and positive body image. Through interactive lessons, music and dance, they develop nutrition knowledge, move their bodies and learn to appreciate their unique selves. Identify strategies for integrating nutrition, movement and self-esteem education in early childhood settings.

Menu planning is more than just demonstrating CACFP meal pattern compliance, it’s a budgeting tool to control costs and efficiency. Learn practical methods to calculate food costs and share purchasing strategies that save money without sacrificing quality. Gain tips for making cost-effective swaps and reviewing menus for maximum value. 

How can nutrition education meaningfully engage parents navigating complex systems, like foster or resource parents, system-involved fathers, or mothers in transitional housing? Explore shared strategies for trust-building, trauma-informed facilitation and developmentally responsive feeding that reconnect families through food.

If you’ve always wanted to introduce nutrition education to the children you serve, but felt overwhelmed by too many resources, you’re not alone. Level up your efforts with Power Up Your Program, developed with support from USDA’s FY23 Team Nutrition Grant. Learn practical strategies and tools for launching program enhancements that engage participants and boost support for your program.

Learn to create positive and supportive mealtimes that help children develop healthy relationships with food. Discuss the benefits of maintaining the division of responsibility in feeding in child care settings and how to grow confident and adventurous eaters through supportive language, modeling and consistency. Help even the most reluctant eaters grow into competent eaters who enjoy a variety of foods!