Fun With Fruit & Veggie Masks

Get your clients or students interested in healthy fruits and vegetables with our new Vegetable Masks and Fruit Masks. These masks, and our combo Fruit and Vegetable Masks, are a fun way to encourage people of all ages to fill half of their plate with fruits and veggies!

Here are some ideas for using these unique eye masks with various age groups and settings:

  • Classroom parties: Celebrate holidays in the classroom by asking parents to send in healthy fruits and veggies. Use the fruit or vegetable masks as party favors, or let students wear the masks during the party.
  • Healthy birthday reward: Encourage students to bring a fruit or veggie snack for their birthday, instead of cookies or cupcakes. When they do, use the fruit or vegetable mask as a reward or birthday crown.
  • MyPlate teaching aid: Students break into groups according to which mask they get – fruit, veggie, or both. Within each group, students (alone or in pairs) are assigned to research a fruit or vegetable that appears on their mask.
  • Name that fruit or vegetable: Break into groups as described above. Each group must correctly identify every fruit or vegetable on their mask. The group that does this fastest wins a prize.
  • Fruit and veggie ice breaker: Use the masks to start meetings and group classes on a fun note!

By Hollis Bass, MEd, RD, LD

5 Ways to Use Our MyPlate Adult Coloring Books

Have you ever thought about using adult coloring books with your clients or patients? Coloring can be meditative. It takes your mind off your worries. It relaxes the brain. And with our unique MyPlate adult coloring book, you get the added benefit of being exposed to healthy messages and images of healthy foods!

We have five ideas for how you can use our MyPlate coloring book, which is geared toward adults and teens:

  • Color-while-you-wait. In a waiting area, set up a table with a few of our MyPlate coloring books and a mug or two filled with sharpened colored pencils. Add a sign that invites people to sit down and color, even if it’s only for a few minutes. Maybe something like this: “Stressed out? Relax with some coloring!”
  • Color-for-a-tough-audience. Have you ever been asked to teach a healthy eating class and the audience is restless or just not that interested? We’ve all been there! Maybe it’s a group of high school students who have other things on their minds, a lunch-and-learn with stressed out employees, or an evening class where people are tired. Flip the switch with some MyPlate coloring!
  • Color-to-recharge. Teaching a seminar or workshop? When you give participants a restroom break, add an extra five minutes for some MyPlate coloring.
  • Color-to-recover. Coloring is great for patients recovering from surgery. It gives their brains something to concentrate on besides pain, discomfort, boredom, or worry.
  • Color-giveaway. Use our MyPlate adult coloring books as prizes at health fairs, biometric screenings, open houses, and other events.

And don’t forget to save one for yourself — your brain deserves a break, too!

See our free coloring sheet here in our nutrition month theme.

Inexpensive but Meaningful Health Fair Prizes, Rewards, and Giveaways

If you are on a budget and looking for inexpensive prizes, giveways, and rewards for nutrition, health, and wellness classes, check out our new list:

Free infosheet: Inexpensive Wellness Fair or Health Fair Giveaways and Prize list – 40 ideas

You can see all of our prizes here:

Prizes for Health Fairs

Enjoy!

Display of the Month: Fresh Fruits and Vegetables

June is Fresh Fruit and Vegetable Month, so what better time is there to celebrate the joys of a variety of fresh fruits and vegetables? This month’s display will help you do just that, without having to burn the midnight oil.

The Materials:

The Activities:

  • Game: Name That Fruit or Vegetable
  • Brainstorming Session: Incorporating Variety into Your Meals

The Details:

To set up your space, first arrange your table with the Color Your World with Food Banner hanging along the front. Flanking it to one side, add the You Need Fuel: Choose Wisely Banner and Stand. To balance it, set up your brainstorming space on the other side of the table. Arrange the Fruit and Vegetable Balloons behind the table. Now top the table with the I Heart Fruits and Vegetables Poster on a Tabletop Easel and arrange some of the Fruit and Vegetable Handouts out in front of it. Line up your prizes (Fruit and Vegetable Pens and Fruit and Vegetable Stickers) at the front of your table, then take a step back and evaluate. How does the display look? Make any necessary shifts, then get ready for your activities.

Display of the month

For the Name That Fruit or Vegetable Game assemble a collection of facts and trivia about common fruits and vegetables. Food and Health’s blog has a few pages of great resources for this game, and the Name That Fruit and Veggie PowerPoint Slideshow is full of fruit and veggie facts as well. Consider the following examples as inspiration for your own collection.

  • This guitar-shaped squash is rich in alpha carotene, which has been linked to a reduced risk of heart disease and cancer (butternut).
  • These tart citrus fruits contain limonin, a cancer-fighting compound that is good for your health (lemons).
  • These starchy veggies are fat-free sources of vitamin E (yams).
  • This tree-like veggie is part of the cabbage family (broccoli).

Once you’ve assembled your facts and trivia (note: this should be before the fair), collect a group of people at your booth to compete for the prizes you’ve displayed. Present each fun fact and let people guess what fruit or vegetable matches it. Offer correct answers and prizes as you go, or have people track their successes and declare a winner at the end of the game.

After the game, turn to brainstorming. Grab your marker and a spot within reach of the brainstorming space, then ask people to discuss the fruits and vegetables they commonly eat. Do they get enough? Review the recommendations set forward by MyPlate and the Dietary Guidelines for Americans, then return to the main topic. How can people incorporate more fruits and vegetables into their meals? How can they build up the variety of fruits and veggies they eat in a week? Offer the remaining prizes for participation, handing them out as volunteers call out suggestions.

Additional Resources:

There are lots of other fruit and vegetable resources that would be perfect for this display, or for another Fresh Fruit and Vegetable Month activity. Why not try…

And for more inspiration, check out the previous editions of the Display of the Month series…

Here’s the free printable Fruit and Vegetable Handout for your display!

Fruit and Vegetable Handout

And finally, last but not least, here are some essentials for your Fresh Fruit and Vegetable Month celebration…

A Thank You from Tennessee Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics

Are you making the most of the free resources that Food and Health offers to health and nutrition educators?

This is the free bookmark we offered for the auction.The Tennessee Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics did.

When they were putting together a silent auction to raise money for their scholarship fund, Marilyn C. Holmes, MS, RD, LDN, State Fundraising Chair of the Tennessee Academy of Nutrition & Dietetics and Shelley Flint, Executive Director of the Tennessee Academy of Nutrition & Dietetics remembered the program from Food and Health Communications that supports health professionals.

After connecting with us, they found themselves the happy recipients of several free nutrition education posters and enough MyPlate bookmarks for each attendee. We even threw in some copies of Home Run Cooking, our popular guide to healthful and easy meals. All of these materials were very well-recieved by their target audience, and Food and Health Communications helped the Tennessee Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics exceed their fundraising goal.

After the event, Marilyn and Shelly wrote to us, saying…

“Thank you and Food and Health Communications for donating the great Home Run cookbooks to our silent auction. As you might guess with a room full of registered dietitians, these books were well received and valued. Thanks to you and others for your generosity, we were able to go over our goal of $1000, for our scholarship fund. Thank you again for adding to the success of our annual meeting. We truly appreciate you for your contribution.”

Shelly followed up after that email to add…

“I am adding on to my previous email to send an extended great thanks for the posters and coupons. They were presented as door prizes and were well received. I received one of your wonderful posters last year and have used it on numerous occasions this year. You certainly are appreciated for your generosity and giving to the Tennessee Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics.”

So, what are you waiting for? If you haven’t availed yourself of the free poster program for dietitian meetings, do it now!

(Remember, this program is just for professionals, not consumers).

And, of course, there are tons of amazing wellness materials in the Nutrition Education Store. Check out some of these top sellers…

Actual MyPlate Plate

Actual MyPlate Plate

MyPlate Poster

12 Lessons of Diabetes Program

Kit: Wellness Fair for Kids