Reading books with children is a creative way to learn about food, nutrition, and behaviors related to food such as food shopping, trying new foods, preparing food, and safe food handling. Reading the books and then talking about what happens to other people in the stories makes it easier to adopt the positive food behaviors in their own families.

Nutrition on the Bookshelf is an educational curriculum that encourages parents to read books with nutrition related themes to their children and involve their children in the planning and decision making regarding the family’s meals. It is based on the idea of families reading and learning together. The curriculum introduces basic nutrition literacy concepts and provides reference information that helps the parents discuss the concepts with their children. The Parent Guides include hands-on learning activities for the parent and child to do together that reinforce the concepts. To download this publication, click on Nutrition on the Bookshelf and select the section you wish to print.

 (The Section Five link is currently broken please click here to open the pdf)