Be a Food Smart Family with 4-H

This post was sponsored by the National 4-H Council and all opinions expressed in my post are my own.

We have been a part of 4-H for years! My daughter started her horse showing experience with 4-H, and we have really enjoyed the family-friendly aspect to 4-H and how they really do promote healthy families! I will never forget my daughter’s first 4-H presentation – she was only 9 but it was an amazing experience to watch her develop a presentation, speak publicly, and even answer a judge’s questions – talk about intimidating for a 9 year old!

So it was no surprise to me when I heard about the really cool new program that 4-H has started, called Food Smart Families.  Food Smart Families is aimed to help engage young people to establish life long healthy habits.  And they are taking aim at some serious problems – nearly 16 million children are in homes that are food insecure, meaning that there is not consistent access to food throughout the year.  

400 youth are trained to be Teens as Teachers, who educate not only other youth, but also their own parents and families on how to plan, shop, and cook healthy meals on a budget! How cool is that! I love that this program is empowering teens to not only make a difference in their own lives (hello, life skills!), other youth, but their OWN family! We took some inspiration and my older daughter worked on teaching my younger daughter to make one of the healthy meals that she makes at home!

It’s been one of my goals to really empower my daughters to be able to have the skills that they need to cook healthy meals – especially with veggies like they made!

My teen is a great teacher for her younger sister, and that’s just what 4-H tries to accomplish through their Teens as Teachers Model – but it also has amazing results for the teens themselves! 90% of participants participating in the program think being active is fun, 89% encourage their families to eat meals together, and 86% choose fruit as a snack instead of unhealthier options.  Check out this video to see how Food Smart Families has effected one teen! It has had a positive effect on families too – 87% of participants say their families have purchased healthier food!

How do you teach your kids to be healthy like Food Smart Families does?