Grow It, Try It, Like It! Preschool Fun with Fruits and Vegetables is a garden-themed nutrition education kit for child care center staff that introduces children to: three fruits - peaches, strawberries, and cantaloupe, and three vegetables - spinach, sweet potatoes, and crookneck squash.

"All-new set of national standards describing evidence-based best practices in nutrition, physical activity, and screen time for early care and education programs. The standards are for all types of early care and education settings--centers and family child care homes."--Back cover

The goal of the Child and Adult Care Food Program (CACFP) is to improve the health and nutrition of children and adults in care while promoting the development of good eating habits. This manual has been designed to provide additional information on creditable and non-creditable foods in child care centers, outside school hours centers, family child care homes, and adult day care centers. Creditable foods are those foods that may be counted toward meeting the requirements for a reimbursable meal.

More than 16 million children in the United States live in food-insecure households where they are unable to obtain enough food to meet their needs. At the same time, a growing number of children are overweight or obese. Because of these challenges, improving child nutrition has emerged as one of the nation's most urgent public health needs. The Child and Adult Care Food Program (CACFP), a U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) food program, served about 3.3 million children in 2011, as well as more than 124,000 adults who require daily supervision or assistance. Since many children rely on CACFP for the majority of their daily food, the quality of foods provided has the potential to greatly improve the health of the children's diets. The USDA asked the IOM to review and recommend improvements, as necessary, to the CACFP meal requirements in order to keep them aligned with other federally funded food assistance programs and with the Dietary Guidelines for Americans. The 2011 IOM report, Child and Adult Care Food Program Aligning Dietary Guidance for All, reviewed the program in detail and provided recommendations for improvement. In February 2012, at the request of the USDA, the IOM conducted an additional workshop to examine research methods and approaches that could be used to design and conduct a nationally representative study assessing children's dietary intake and participation rates in child care facilities, including CACFP-sponsored child care centers and homes. Research Methods to Assess Dietary Intake and Program Participation in Child Day Care: Application to the Child and Adult Care Food Program Workshop Summary is the report that summarizes the workshop.

For those involved in promoting healthy eating through the CACFP, Child and Adult Care Food Program.**** This journal is a simple log for planning CCFP meals. It includes 45 meal charts with blank spaces and 22 lined journal pages to plan for Breakfast, AM Snack, Lunch, PM Snack, and Dinner. Size 5.2" x 0.2" x 8" with 110 pages total. Make the log book even more special by stuffing a gift certificate or a little cash into the folds. ****Related terms: State Food Program, USDA, CACFP, CCFP, Child Care Food Program, Daycare Program, Adult Care Food Program, Meal Patterns, Hunger-Free Kids Act 2010, National School Lunch Act (NSLA), Dietary Guidelines for Americans, Food and Nutrition Service (FNS), Child Nutrition Program, Health and Human Services.---On the BACK COVER: ---USDA's Child and Adult Care Food Program (CACFP) plays a vital role in improving the quality of daycareand making it more affordable for many low-income families. Each day, millions of children receive nutritious meals and snacks through CACFP.

Recommendations for feeding infants and young children have changed substantially over time owing to scientific advances, cultural influences, societal trends, and other factors. At the same time, stronger approaches to reviewing and synthesizing scientific evidence have evolved, such that there are now established protocols for developing evidence-based health recommendations. However, not all authoritative bodies have used such approaches for developing infant feeding guidance, and for many feeding questions there is little or no sound evidence available to guide best practices, despite the fact that research on infant and young child feeding has expanded in recent decades. Summarizing the current landscape of feeding recommendations for infants and young children can reveal the level of consistency of existing guidance, shed light on the types of evidence that underpin each recommendation, and provide insight into the feasibility of harmonizing guidelines. Feeding Infants and Children from Birth to 24 Months collects, compares, and summarizes existing recommendations on what and how to feed infants and young children from birth to 24 months of age. This report makes recommendations to stakeholders on strategies for communicating and disseminating feeding recommendations.

(This is the shorter 124 page "Home/Family Edition" which excludes lesson plans). This book provides families, teachers and community members with the basic tools and inspiration to connect children with nature and show them how to grow, prepare and eat healthy foods. Readers will find step-by-step lesson plans/curricula, hundreds of activity ideas, plant guides and nutritionist-approved, Hawai'i-based recipes. The book is divided into two main sections: Meet the Plants and Recipes. The Meet the Plants section is used to teach keiki about specific fruits, vegetables and herbs (includes 19 plants or plant families). Each page features a specific plant or plant family with a labeled photograph. These pages will increase readers knowledge about plants and give you ideas about how to use them in the classroom, kitchen and garden. The book includes 37 "'Ai Pono Recipes". These recipes are for adults to make with children, or children to make on their own. Make these recipes for taste tests, classroom/home cooking, snacks and meals. They are all nourishing foods that feature Hawai'i grown and raised ingredients. The book encourages adults to engage children in the entire cooking process: learning about the ingredients, gardening, harvesting, washing, cooking, eating and cleaning. These recipes are designed to keep children, families and teachers healthy, so readers are encouraged to make and eat these recipes often. This book is beautiful and features real foods and plants from Hawai'i.