Summer often means food insecurity for children in underserved communities, because they lose access to the school lunch program. Only one in seven children who qualify for free school lunches receives healthy food over the summer.
This summer, Austin-based nonprofit Common Threads is implementing its Small Bites nutrition education program in Austin, Jacksonville, Chicago, Los Angeles, Miami, New Orleans, New York, Pittsburgh and Washington D.C. Common Threads says it will serve over 212,000 healthy snacks to more than 26,000 children.
Small Bites teaches children about nutrition and healthy cooking through a series of lessons combining math, language arts and science concepts with knife-free cooking. The lessons are aligned to National Health Education Standards and support Common Core State Standards Next Generation Science Standards.
“Our goal is to ensure that healthy cooking, healthy eating and healthy living are both a life choice and a human right for every child,” says Common Threads co-founder and CEO Linda Novick O’Keefe.
Photo courtesy of Common Threads.
