Curious Eaters – Canada – Québec (IFMSA-Québec)

Name of the activity: Curious Eaters

Country/NMO: Canada – Québec (IFMSA-Québec)

Program: Healthy Lifestyles & Non-Communicable Diseases

Contact information: [email protected]

Type of the activity: Education

General description:

The Curious Eaters project is a fun and interactive workshop for children in kindergarten, first and second grade. Two main themes are addressed: the discovery of fruits and vegetables as well as the various ways fun to be active.

Focus area:

Nutrition

Problem statement:

Nutritional habits are made during childhood, we now know this. And we also know that what we eat is of high importance for our health.

Target groups and beneficiaries:

The Curious Eaters project is a fun and interactive workshop for children in kindergarten, first and second grade. Two main themes are addressed: the discovery of fruits and vegetables as well as the various ways fun to be active.

Objectives and indicators of success:

The main objective of the project is to stimulate the curiosity of the children to discover various fruits and vegetables available in their environment but that they don’t tend to eat. The workshop doesn’t prohibit any food and doesn’t in any way preach or disapprove of the food choices of children or of their parents. The goal is only to expose the child to the great food and variety available to break the habit of choosing certain foods and neglecting others.

The same principle applies to the theme of physical activity. The workshop encourages children to discover some activities that will entertain and keep them active. The goal of this approach is to amuse the children and offer some educational concepts without marginalizing them.

Indicators of success are the number of participating students and the number of schools visited.

Methodology:

Our workshops last between 45 and 60 minutes. They are made by a team of three animators who play funny and costumed characters in three scenarios: a traveler, a dinosaur, a farmer and a king/queen (played by the teacher).

Teachers are encouraged to actively participate in the workshop with a simple role that requires no prior preparation, which is the king/queen. Animators explain his/her role and give him/her guidelines to follow.

The activity begins with the traveler who, with the participation of the children, helps the dinosaur stop eating trees from the beautiful forest by allowing him to discover other food and various ways to make them delicious. To do so, the traveler meets a farmer who then presents all kinds of fruits and vegetables that he grows on his farm. Thereafter, the traveler seeks the help from the classroom to build a mascot with pictures of food made ​​by the farmer.

The final scenario involves the king/queen (the teacher) who is bored and asks the traveler and his people (students) to amuse him/her by miming all kinds of activities that can keep them active. At the end of the workshop, a recipe book (approved by a nutritionist) is given to the children so they can cook with their parents, who are then invited to continue feeding that curiosity about food to their children.

This activity is completely free.

Plans for evaluation:

Our way to evaluate our performance is to compare the number of participants and the number of school visited. We aim to be higher every year. We have a survey that is sent to teaches and to our participants (university students) after every performance.