Food, Culture, & Reading
Piloting a youth nutrition
education program
May 10, 2011
The 4-H Program, Food,
Culture, & Reading, is
currently being
implemented as part of
the afterschool initiative,
After the Bell. After the
Bell is available to
students in grades six to
eight at Kennett Middle
School in Landenberg,
Pennsylvania. It provides
the opportunity for
students to enroll in fun
and educational
sessions of interest and
provides a safe
environment during a
critical weekday time.
Food, Culture, &
Reading is employed
under the session title,
“I’m Hungry! What’s to
Facilitator: Catherine Birdsey (Right) & Assistant: Nicole
Bernstein (Left)
Catherine Birdsey, MPH Candidate & Nicole Bernstein
student earning her Girl
Scouts Gold Award.
Students enrolled in “I’m
Hungry! What’s to Eat?”
are guided through
physical, learning, and
cooking activities that
introduce them to
healthy foods, nutrition,
and exercise, while
including elements of
different cultures. Thus
far, the group has
successfully made multi-
cultural pizzas
representing the
diversity of the United
States and Mexican
tortillas to celebrate
Cinco de Mayo. They are
preparing to make potato
latkes from Russia in the
During the first week, What’s to Eat?” is
students competed in a provided on the following
food pyramid relay race. page. A training on the
The object of the race usability of Food, Culture,
was to place all of the & Reading based on the
foods given to the group facilitator’s experience is
in the proper food group planned for summer
in the fastest amount of
time. Afterwards,
students identified
twenty foods that they
commonly eat and which
food group they belong
to. This was in turn used
to identify what foods
students are eating too
much or too little of.
Every lesson plan
Food, Culture, & Reading,
developed from Food,
the newest addition to the
Culture, & Reading
National 4-H Afterschool
begins with physical
curriculum
activity. The objective is
After the Bell students share the Food, Culture, &
Reading program after making multicultural pizzas
Food, Culture, & Reading Page 2
Piloting a youth nutrition

Food, Culture, & Reading Sample Lesson Plan: United States

Introducing
Introduction: Food, Culture, & Reading to Kennett Middle School’s After the Bell Program
Introduction of facilitators and students

Introduction of the program

1) Focus on learning about nutrition and eating healthy by building culturally healthy snacks and completing
activities from around the world. This week we will start with the United States, next week will be Mexico.

2) Goal by the end is to be nutrition experts and be able to choose healthy foods for themselves and others
and understand the importance of eating healthy.

Physical Activity:

Relay race with the food pyramid

1) Divide fish cards into 2 sets and split youth into 2 teams of 2.
2) Have youth race to place the fish cards in
the appropriate spot on the food pyramid. However, they must use different activities to get back and forth from the
pyramid. 3) First team to finish wins unless they have 3 or more foods in the wrong category. Stress the
importance of placing higher fat foods towards the top.

Questions:

1) What was challenging about doing this relay race?

2)What are ways that you like to stay active? Why is staying active just as important to your health as eating right?
3) Do you find it hard to find time to be active? Why?

Learning Activity:

MyPyramid for kids worksheet

1) Provide each youth with a copy and crayons

2) Identify the food groups represented by each stripe and the types of foods located
within each. Youth may color in the stripes if they like. 3) Have youth make a
list of 20 foods they enjoy and place them in the food pyramid

Questions:

1) What foods did you put on your list? From which stripe did you find that you eat the most foods? Which stripe do
you eat the fewest foods from? 2) What are the stairs located on the
side of the MyPyramid for?
3) What food choice changes can you make to improve your diet?
4) How does an illustration such as MyPyramid help people understand information?

Cooking Activity:

Multicultural pizza

1) Introduce the ingredients and stress trying new things and making the most unique pizza that uses the most
ingredients from each food group. 2) Wash hands
3) Create pizzas using recipe ingredients

Questions:

1) Describe the pizza you made. How is your pizza different from the pizza that others made or the pizza you usually
eat? 2) How did MyPyramid help you decide