Resources,
Online Resources

• Making Meals Matter

  There are a lot of benefits of eating meals together as a family. Read about some findings.

• Mealtime Conversation Cards

  Make Mealtime Family Time

  A free downloadable set of conversation cards.

• The Kids Cook Monday

  The Kids Cook Monday provides examples of kid friendly recipes and video demonstrations along with nutrition and safety tips—making it easy for families to cook and eat together every Monday.

• Meals This Week Planner

  Plan your meals for the week with this print out.

• HealthLink BC Food Safety Tips

  HealthLink BC

  Food poisoning affects hundreds of British Columbians every day. This document lists ten steps to make food safe.

• Spatulatta: Cooking 4 Kids Online

  Spatulatta teaches children to cook with free step-by-step videos. It encourages children to take pride in their accomplishments in the kitchen and to understand the connection between farm and dinner table. It also encourages children to ask their family members and friends for recipes and to cook those dishes together.

• Jamie Oliver’s Ministry of Food

  Jamie Oliver

  Ministry of Food is all about getting people cooking again. It shows that anyone can learn to cook—and that it’s fun, cool, can save you money and help you, your family and friends to live a healthier life.

• Eating Together

  Heart & Stroke Foundation, Yukon & BC

  This webpage addresses two common obstacles to family meals: time to cook and hectic schedules.

• Cooking with Kids

  EatRight Ontario

  This webpage features helpful tips to make cooking with kids a big family hit. Tips are organized by children’s ages. Ten simple recipes are provided.

• Rediscovering the Family Meal

  Bernard Roy and Judith Petitpas, The Vanier Institute of the Family

  This report explores the concept of “family meal” and eating habits from a sociological perspective.

• Child Poverty in Perspective: An overview of child well-being in rich countries

  Innocenti Report Card 7, UNICEF

  This report looked at how well children and teens fare in various countries. Data was collected for 15-year-olds from 25 countries, including Canada. The report analyzes six dimensions: material well-being, health and safety, education, family and peer relationships, behaviours and risks, and sense of being loved, valued, and included in families and societies into which they were born. When looking at the best measure of family relationships, UNICEF used the marker “percentage of students whose parents eat their main meal with them around a table several times a week.”

• Health Matters—Eat Better Together

  Jill Rhynard, Interior Health, BC

  This newsletter issue discusses the benefits to both children and adults when families eat together, provides tips for great family mealtimes and ideas for kid-approved quick and easy meals.

• Family Newsletter

  The Center for Mindful Eating

  This newsletter series provides tips for enjoyable meals and introduces families to mindful eating.

• Family Meals Focus E-Newsletter

  Ellyn Satter, Registered Dietitian

  Several issues of this newsletter provide guidance to families on how to have positive experiences at the dinner table. Note especially in the Archived newsletters the following issues: Focus #4: Family Meals Are Essential, Focus #5: Helping Family Get Back to the Table, and Focus #8: Answering Parents and Professionals Questions about Meals: Family-style meals.

• Heart Healthy Eating Guide for Your Family

  Heart and Stroke Foundation

  This sixteen-page colour booklet provides simple tips and tools to help busy parents plan meals and make healthy choices with their children. It includes a helpful meal planner, a mix and match food group chart, grocery tips and kid-friendly recipes for family meals and recipes. It also includes activity tips and simple solutions to everyday challenges.

• Healthy Eating and Active Living For Your 1 to 5 Year Old

  Healthy U, Alberta Health and Wellness

  This colourful twenty-eight-page booklet provides parents of toddlers and preschoolers with healthy eating tips and activity ideas to encourage their children to eat healthy and be active. It stresses the importance of families enjoying meals and activities together and parents modeling healthy eating and active living. Issues addressed include constipation, food allergies, food safety, picky eating, meal and snack planning, and healthy body image. It also includes a chart to map out the family activity plan, a sample menu plan and a list of activities to do.

• Eat Better, Eat Together

  Nutrition Education Network of Washington

  This webpage features a kit that includes a research summary, brochures and strategies used in the Washington State initiative to promote family meals. Families can submit their successful family mealtime experiences through the 'Share your favourite family meal' feature.

• Healthy Eating and Active Living For Your 6 to 12 Year Old

  Healthy U, Alberta Health and Wellness

  This colourful twenty-four-page booklet provides parents with healthy eating tips and ideas to encourage their 6 to 12 year-old children to eat healthy and be active. It stresses the importance of families enjoying meals and activities together and parents modeling healthy eating and active living. Issues addressed include creating healthy places and spaces, choosing and planning the right activities, meal and snack choices, eating out, food safety, food struggles, and healthy body self-image. It also includes a quiz to help families identify areas they can improve, a list of activities families can enjoy together, a chart to map out the family activity plan, a list of foods to choose from, a chart of school lunch ideas, and a list of snack ideas.

• Can you give me ideas to help me plan healthy meals for my family and myself?

  Dietitians of Canada

  This webpage provides ten tips for planning healthy family meals.

• Eat Together, Eat At Home

  BC Medical Association

  This document outlines the benefits of eating together at home.

• Tasty Talk: 40 Mealtime Conversation Starters

  Beth Marshall

  A 4"x5" set of cards that includes some simple games.

• Family Mealtimes Conversation Starters

  Cattlemen's Beef Board and National Cattlemen's Beef Association

  Simple, friendly conversation starter cards with three age groups in mind: toddlers, school-age children and adolescents.

• Family Mealtime Conversation Cards

  Iowa State University

  A set of 40 cards that comes in a 5"x7" plastic bag. Each card provides a conversation starter in both English and Spanish.

• 30 Minute Skillet Meals

  Adapted from Alberta Milk

  Ideas for quick meals.

• Screen Free Tips and Conversation Starters

  Eat Right Montana

  More mealtime conversation ideas.

• Helping Your Toddler to Eat Well: Sharing the Responsibility with Your One to Three-Year-Old

  HealthLink BC

  This webpage gives helpful tips on how to approach different eating scenarios with small toddlers.