Food Literacy Center

Wellness and Fitness ServicesCalifornia, United States11-50 Employees

Food Literacy Center's mission is to inspire kids to eat their vegetables. We teach low-income elementary children cooking and nutrition to improve our health,environment, and economy.

Food Literacy [fu: d lit-er-uh-see]
noun: Understanding the impact of your food choices on your health, the environment, and our community.

Why Food Literacy Matters:
Only 4% of kids eat their recommended amount of veggies daily. In California, 40% of children are overweight—a rate three times higher than it was 30 years ago, when the obesity epidemic began. Researchers believe we have two generations of Americans who do not know how to cook. 

Who We Serve
Low-income elementary school children. 

What We Do
We teach food literacy, learning to read recipes, basic cooking skills, nutrition, and environmental impacts.

We feed. By introducing healthy, sustainable snacks and introducing children to new fruits and vegetables with our curriculum, we empower students to explore new foods, feed themselves—and make smart choices.

We train. As demand for food literacy from schools and nonprofits grows, so does the need for teachers trained to teach. Our Food Literacy Genius program provides an intensive 8-week training for community members who are screened through an application process, and asked to commit annual hours of volunteer service to our community, helping bring our curriculum to more schools and nonprofits.

Our Approach
We believe that good food should be fun! We focus on the positive side of food, sharing practical, affordable, and approachable ways to eat well, rather than harping on what foods people should avoid or eliminate. We aim to engage rather than frighten.

Results
We test and measure our programs, using evaluation data to improve as we discover best practices to create lasting change. In our pilot program pre-test, when asked K-1st graders if healthy snacks taste good; 82% of kids said “no.” After 1 month 92% of the kids said “yes.”

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