Parents and Caregivers work tirelessly to make food fun, nutritious and educational – which is great, because they play a critical role in improving children’s health. Yet with picky eaters, healthy eating can be quite the challenge. Here are a few ways you can get a healthy eating program moving in your home or community:

1. New to Canada? Join the Peer Nutrition program – designed for newcomer women and their children and is hosted by Parkdale CHC, Toronto Public Health, and West Neighbourhood House. It offers an opportunity to cook and share a nutritious meal, engage with peers on settlement challenges for women parenting, and other issues.

2. Visit the Sorauren Farmers’ Market, which runs every Monday from 3-7pm. Farmers are often thrilled to share their food inspiration with children, and you might consider turning it into an adventure with a scavenger hunt. Ps: the market is currently seeking volunteers for the summer!

3. Get involved with Greenest City. In particular, you might find the Great Garden Adventure program fun – it’s a program run by the Toronto Green Community, and is supported by Greenest City. The program is aimed at kids ages 5-10 and runs every Monday from 2pm – 4pm, starting in July and finishing in late August.

4. Turn healthy snacks into a learning experience at Creating Together’s weekly “make your own pizza” day – an opportunity to learn how to make a fresh, wholesome pizza that kids love!

5. Offer healthy alternatives at events, and have your child get involved in it’s creation!

6. Become a hub coordinator for Food Share, and involve your children in understanding what is in season, what is local, and discover some new recipes you can create with new foods together.

7. Make snacks and meals a routine, offering them at scheduled times throughout the day.

8. Make food the focus by turning off the TV and other devices, and putting away toys during mealtime.  New research suggests that cooking family meals and avoiding TV while eating them may lower the chances of becoming obese.

9. Attend a Toddler Food Prep workshop at Creating Together. Each month, Marcela from Foodshare offers parents and caregivers a hands-on toddler food preparation workshop. She shares fast, easy and healthy meal ideas and participants will get to help make and sample the food prepared, including recipes to take home!

10. Lead by example. Your children are more likely to try new foods if you eat them too!