Meaningful Mealtimes

Mealtimes in early learning settings present rich opportunities for connection, learning, and positive food experiences. Make the most of mealtimes—and prevent and address common feeding challenges—with this user-friendly planning guide, the first of its kind for early childhood educators and care providers.

Written by a cross-disciplinary team of professionals, this book empowers you to make meaningful changes to mealtime routines that benefit children of all ability levels and cultural backgrounds. Through a tiered approach based on MTSS, you'll deliver mealtime supports that respond to each child's needs and foster safety, autonomy, connection, nourishment, interest, and inclusion for all. How-to guidance, helpful examples, and practical tools make the strategies easy to implement, and the focus on equity and cultural responsiveness will help you consider how to shape mealtimes that welcome children with diverse experiences and backgrounds.

With the flexible, practical, and inclusive approach in this book, you’ll use best practices to make mealtimes fulfilling and meaningful experiences for all young children.

LEARN HOW TO:

• Identify and address feeding challenges in proactive and culturally responsive ways
• Develop a vision for mealtimes and set clear goals to improve the mealtime experience
• Apply five core practices that can enhance your current mealtime routines
• Encourage children to explore and build comfort with a variety of foods
• Incorporate literacy, math, and other skills into mealtime to make it a powerful learning experience
• Use mealtime conversations  to increase children’s social connections, autonomy, and awareness of food origins and food justice 
• Use ongoing assessment to make decisions and track progress toward your goals
• Strengthen the connection between your program and home by cultivating collaborative relationships with families