One Picky Eater
Posted by Paulina Popielarz on Friday, September 30, 2011
The effectiveness of our Cooking Matters program does not only depend on skilled volunteer instructors, but also on the attitude of our participants. This became quite clear to me during a Cooking Matters for Kids class in Delray Beach, FL.
As I walked into a room full of 7 and 8 year old girls on the first day of class, I was greeted by many smiling and cheerful faces. On the first day, we have our child participants fill out a short survey that asks them questions regarding their eating habits, such as, “I like to try new foods. Yes or no?” During the last day of class we have them fill out the same survey to compare.
Afterward, my volunteer nutrition instructors walked them through an introduction to MyPlate and MyPyramid, and the girls eagerly answered questions. This was turning out to be a great class! The cooking lesson was a breeze and the girls picked up on knife safety very quickly and wizzed through the slicing and dicing of summer squash and zucchini for our Ratatouille in no time. Then things started to get a little problematic.
In the beginning, the girls were very excited to try the barley I whipped up earlier. After one of the girls, Ryah, decided that she wanted to try the barley on the side, the rest of the girls requested theirs on the side. Commence the complaining. We tried to convince them that some foods aren’t as tasty as when they are combined with other foods, but they weren’t sold. The Ratatouille was officially a flop. I was devastated after making such a bad first impression. The following week was the same story — we made the Northwest Apple Salad and Smoothies. The girls waited to see what Ryah had to say. She didn’t like it. Another flop!
And then the dynamic began to change when we made Apple Wraps and Baked Chicken Fingers. I started hearing: “Well if you don’t like than don’t say anything,” “If you have nothing nice to say than don’t say anything at all” and “I don’t know what your problem is Ryah, this stuff is really good.” Not a bad word from Ryah or the rest of the girls.
After looking over the surveys, it turns out that Ryah was the only girl that answered “NO!” to the question “I like to try new foods.” Even though it was a little bumpy in the beginning, our leading lady eventually listened to the other girls and became more open to trying new foods .
As they say, “It takes a village to raise a child.” Well I say “It takes a whole class to change the mind of one picky eater.”
September 30, 2011 | 0 comment(s) | Tags: cooking matters, florida, no kid hungry
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