The Alabama Farm to ECE Coalition is excited to announce the launch of the Alabama Foods from A to Z Toolkit!
The Alabama Foods from A to Z Toolkit can be used in various early childhood settings, including child care centers, family child care homes, Head Start programs, Pre-K classrooms, and more. This toolkit is a collection of resources and information for providing food and farming education to young children.
Each lesson in the Toolkit describes the various foods grown in Alabama by sharing a fun fact, information on how it grows, nutrition facts, and where they can be purchased locally. The lessons also include an activity using the local food item!
How It Works:
- The first page of the lesson shows an overview of the food, how and where it grows, and its nutritional facts. This page can be used as a visual during a circle time lesson and can be printed for families to take home.
- The second page of the lesson includes additional information about the food, including how it grows in the garden, the nutritional facts, a fun fact, and where it can be found in Alabama. This section also includes a hands-on activity that can be incorporated into the lesson plan.
The Alabama Foods from A to Z Toolkit is made specifically for children ages 0 to 5 in early care and education settings, but it can be used with a variety of age groups to discuss where our food comes from. The Alabama Department of Public Health, a partner of the Alabama Farm to ECE Coalition, has released an A to Z Video to supplement the toolkit resources. Check it out below!
Trainings on how to use the toolkit with a limited number of printed copies will be available to early childhood educators in the near future. Explore the toolkit today by visiting our Resources page, and stay tuned for more Alabama Foods from A to Z resources!
The development of this resource has been supported by generous funding from the Alabama Department of Human Resources and Nemours Children’s Health.
