Years ago, My Plate replaced the Food Pyramid as a visual to show us how we can have a healthy diet. It's now the visual that is posted in schools, doctors' offices, child care centers and, well, anywhere a healthy lifestyle is being promoted. While a wonderful visual of proteins, grains, fruits, and vegetables - it's more than that! The website has a treasure trove of digital resources we can use to encourage healthy eating. Providers can use it with the children or senior adults, it can be used for family engagement and even for self care. There's even a Start Simple with MyPlate app!
In the Eat Healthy section we have overview of what My Plate is all about and information about the different food groups, healthy eating on a budget and more! The Food Group Gallery has lists of the food groups broken into sub-topics and examples of those types of foods.
The Life Stages section provides information and resources by age group.
For example, The Toddler page addresses Healthy Eating, Picky Eating, Serve Safe Food and Resources all specific to children that are toddler age.
Resources section has digital tools, print materials and more! I'm excited to use the Kids Food Critic Activity sheet.
The Professionals section helps you find exactly what you're look for by filter options! They even have toolkits to help you use these resources with your community.
And last, but certainly not least, the My Plate Kitchen has recipes, the ability to make cookbooks, recipes resources and videos! Each recipe has the serving size, cook time, prep time and an idea for how much the whole recipe costs. One of the coolest parts is at the bottom you have the nutrition information AND a the serving size for each food group!
Take the website for a spin! And let us know what you think is most valuable for your program in the comments below or email me: samantha@ccfproundtable.org