Eat My ABCs: Integrate Healthy Eating Into School Readiness

The 14-week, community-led, program, aimed to establish lifelong healthy eating habits among vulnerable low-income preschoolers living in rural Michigan, includes three main components: (1) "Eat My ABCs" child curriculum, (2) child fruit/vegetable letters to parents, and (3) program cookbook.

"Eat My ABCs" Child Curriculum. Head Start teachers, along with teacher assistants/aids, will independently teach the age appropriate "Eat My ABCs" curriculum per week, for a total of 14 weeks. The "Eat My ABCs" curriculum follows the alphabet theme and incorporates the five senses into learning (hear fruit and vegetable information, see the color, feel the texture, smell the scent, and taste the flavor). Each week includes two sessions: 1) healthy eating learning on one fruit and one vegetable by incorporating school readiness knowledge on numbers, shapes, colors, and alphabets; and 2) food taste-testing activities to expose children to one fruit, one vegetable, and relevant food items made from the one fruit and one vegetable to teach children the creative ways to make fruit/vegetable healthy and tasty.

Child Letter to Parents. Every week, each child will create one letter, using stickers, regarding the one fruit and one vegetable presented in the program that he/she tasted or wanted to try at home.

Program Cookbook. The investigators have developed a targeted program cookbook for low-income families to overcome their limited cooking skills, busy schedules, and tight family budget. The program cookbook contains all budget-friendly recipes for healthy breakfasts, family meals, quick-fixes, kid-friendly snacks, and occasional sweets; and these recipes are culturally appropriate with a variety of choices such as American, Italian, Mexican, and Asian cuisines. In the cookbook, the investigators also promote slow /pressure-cooking recipes as using a slow or pressure cooker to prepare easy but healthy meals is an effective way to overcome low-income parent barriers of lack of time and cooking skills. In addition, the cookbook contains creative ways of making fruit/vegetable healthy, tasty, and kid-friendly at home.