Knead It, Punch It, Bake It
Judith and Evan Jones
Making bread is fun--even more so when children participate.
Book List
Looking for books that encourage families to cook together and feature a lot of recipes that kids can help with? Here are a few we like.
Food Skills for Families
Food Skills for Families is a hands-on curriculum based program that makes healthy eating, shopping and cooking easy, quick and fun. It is designed for cooking groups that serve Indigenous, Punjabi, newcomers, low-income and active senior populations. Six hands-on sessions, led by a certified Community Facilitator, cover topics such as; healthy food choices, safe food handling and storage, meal planning, healthy snacks, nutrition education and a grocery store tour. The program is free of charge and is available throughout B.C.
Spatulatta: Cooking 4 Kids Online
Spatulatta teaches children to cook with free step-by-step videos. It encourages children to take pride in their accomplishments in the kitchen and to understand the connection between farm and dinner table. It also encourages children to ask their family members and friends for recipes and to cook those dishes together.
Jamie Oliver’s Ministry of Food
Jamie Oliver
Ministry of Food is all about getting people cooking again. It shows that anyone can learn to cook—and that it’s fun, cool, can save you money and help you, your family and friends to live a healthier life.
Cooking with Kids
Unlock Food
This webpage features helpful tips to make cooking with kids a big family hit. Tips are organized by children’s ages. Ten simple recipes are provided.
Rediscovering the Family Meal
Bernard Roy and Judith Petitpas, The Vanier Institute of the Family
This report explores the concept of “family meal” and eating habits from a sociological perspective.
Child Poverty in Perspective: An overview of child well-being in rich countries
Innocenti Report Card 7, UNICEF
This report looked at how well children and teens fare in various countries. Data was collected for 15-year-olds from 25 countries, including Canada. The report analyzes six dimensions: material well-being, health and safety, education, family and peer relationships, behaviours and risks, and sense of being loved, valued, and included in families and societies into which they were born. When looking at the best measure of family relationships, UNICEF used the marker “percentage of students whose parents eat their main meal with them around a table several times a week.”
Health Matters—Eat Better Together
Jill Rhynard, Interior Health, BC
This newsletter issue discusses the benefits to both children and adults when families eat together, provides tips for great family mealtimes and ideas for kid-approved quick and easy meals.
Family Meals Focus E-Newsletter
Ellyn Satter, Registered Dietitian
Several issues of this newsletter provide guidance to families on how to have positive experiences at the dinner table. Note especially in the Family Meals and Snacks section of the Index of Topics the following: