Take Action: Child Nutrition and Better School Food

Rachael and Yum-o! are taking a stand for child nutrition. Are YOU ready to get involved? Learn how you can join Rach and the Yum-o! Team in ensuring access to nutritious food for your kids and for all children across the country by taking action in your community, at home and at your child’s school:

IN YOUR COMMUNITY

Donate to Yum-o!
Yum-o! works together with our partners and organizations nationwide to support initiatives like the FoodCorps Leadership Award, NRAEF Scholarships, Feeding America’s® National Produce Program and BackPack Program, NY SchoolFood and No Kid Hungry’s® School Breakfast Program. Your donation to Yum-o! supports these and other Yum-o! efforts.

Visit the How Cool Is That? Section on the Yum-o! Website
Check out the How Cool Is That? section of the Yum-o! website to learn about people and organizations that are doing great work around the country when it comes to child nutrition. You may find organizations in your area you can get involved with or ideas that can be implemented at your child’s school or in your community!

Find Your Local Food Bank
Use this Food Bank Locator to find your local food bank. Consider making a monetary donation, donating food or contributing your time to volunteer to help people in your commmunity who are struggling with hunger.

AT HOME

Start Cooking
Check out the delicious, family-friendly recipes right here on the Yum-o! website to get started cooking right in your own kitchen! We’ve also got extra-simple recipe ideas and tips in our Yum-o! Kitchen Road Maps.

Subscribe to the Yum-o! Newsletter
Stay in touch with Yum-o! by subscribing to our newsletter, where we share updates about our latest initiatives, along with additional tips and tools for improving the food your children are served at school and our fun, fast and affordable recipes that you can cook together at home.

AT SCHOOL

Join the Healthy Schools Program
Suggest that your school join Yum-o!’s partner, the Alliance for a Healthier Generation’s, free Healthy Schools program. The program offers a number of resources and support tools for their member schools. You can also learn from the success stories on their website that reflect positive changes that participating schools have made.

Transform School Food and Boost Nutrition Education
Work with school administrators to incorporate healthier meal choices on the cafeteria menu, such as Yum-o! and the Alliance for a Healthier Generation’s Healthy School Meals.

The Lunch Box is an online toolkit with "Healthy Tools For All Schools," packed with solutions at your fingertips. You can use any of these free tools to transform your school food into healthy and delicious food for all children, at every school. The recipes and other tools-for-change featured on this site have worked well for school districts across the country and can be used to make positive change happen in your community, too!

Find out what parents and stakeholders in Chicago Public Schools have learned and discover how you can apply the lessons featured in Chicago Public Schools’ Pathways to Excellence in School Nutrition to your school district.

Make the case for change and discover innovative solutions to the challenges of improving school food at your school using the Rethinking School Lunch framework.

Hosted by the School Nutrition Association (SNA), Tray Talk spotlights school meal successes and provides parents, students and school administrators with information about healthy school meals.

The Nourish Middle School Curriculum Guide offers a rich set of resources to open a meaningful conversation about food and sustainability. Beautifully designed and brimming with big ideas, the materials contain a viewing guide, six learning activities, action projects, student handouts, bibliography and glossary.

Get Organized
FoodFight is an organization that arms teachers, students and school staff with the tools and knowledge they need to make healthier choices and become role models and agents of change for their families and communities and offers a unique food literacy curriculum.

Download and Share Yum-o!’s Kitchen Road Map™
Yum-o!’s Kitchen Road Map series is an excellent resource for parents and schools. Many schools include it on their websites or in their school newsletters!

Photo credit: Melissa Golden