Apply for a Mini Food Grant to Inspire Healthy Eating in Schools
Would you like to use food in your classroom to inspire your students to eat well? Enhance your teaching—apply for a mini food grant!
Every year, teachers who are using one of the BC Dairy Association (BCDA) programs can apply for a mini food grant. In the 2019-2020 school year, we awarded over 200 grants to teachers across BC who successfully completed the application by sharing how they would use the money to complement the BCDA program they were teaching.
Top 10 FAQ about Mini Food Grants
2) Do I have to teach a specific nutrition education program to be eligible?
3) Do I need to order BCDA nutrition materials to be eligible?
4) What do I need to include in my application?
5) Do I need to include foods from all three food categories?
6) How else can I strengthen my application?
7) Can the food be used to help feed hungry children at my school?
8) How have other teachers used their grant?
10) What happens if my application is not successful?
1) Who can apply?
Teachers instructing at any grade level (Kindergarten–Grade 12) can apply if they have taken a workshop and are teaching one of our nutrition education programs.
If you haven't taken a workshop and are interested in teaching nutrition in your classroom, get in touch with us at nutrition@bcdairy.ca or call 604-294-3775/1-800-242-6455.
2) Do I have to teach a specific nutrition education program to be eligible?
As long as you are using one of our programs, you are eligible to apply:
https://bcdairy.ca/nutritioneducation/workshops
3) Do I need to order BCDA nutrition materials to be eligible?
If you are planning to teach a program that requires materials, you need to have ordered the corresponding materials for the 2020-2021 year in order to be eligible:
Food Explorers/ Les explorateurs d'aliments (K-1), Food For Us!/ Des aliments pour nous! (2-3), Food Sense/ Bien manger (4-6), Passport to Healthy Living/ Passeport pour une vie saine (4-7), Bone Zone (5-8)
Note: Bone Zone materials can be ordered or downloaded.
If you are teaching a program or lesson plan that doesn’t require ordering materials, please contact us to find out what you’ll need to be eligible. Examples include:
Titanium Chef/ Le chef Titane (6-8) and BC At The Table (7-12)
4) What do I need to include in my application?
If you are teaching the Food Explorers program, tell us which recipes you plan to explore from package A or B.
For other programs, share how you’ll be using food to enhance the lessons from the BCDA program that you will be teaching. We don’t need you to reinvent the wheel. There are suggested extension activities in the teacher guides and lesson plans designed to enhance the nutrition education programs. A minimum of two food categories need to be included in order to be eligible for the grant.
Grant funding will vary depending on the program you are teaching and the food activities planned. Teachers are eligible for one grant per school year, up to a maximum of $150.
Below are sample applications from each of our core programs that include the elements of what we’d like to see in an application:
Food Explorers (K-Gr.1)After providing an introduction and discussion surrounding each food, I plan to have the class prepare the following:
All the recipes discussed above come from package A. Students will be encouraged to help with food preparation. All of the students will be exposed to the foods in a positive environment. They will not be pressured to try anything, but will have the opportunity to taste or experience the foods through observation. After the tasting, the students will reflect on their experience in the journal pages and the collector card will be sent home to support the parent/family connection. Food For Us! (Gr. 2-3)1) Grain products lesson: We will make bread by using the Making Bread and Butter lesson plan. 2) Meat and alternatives lesson: We will make homemade trail mix with pumpkin seeds, sunflower seeds, and dried cranberries. Not only will the students be exposed to an example of plant-based protein, this will also be a great example to illustrate a healthy snack and a combination food in later lesson plans. 3) Balanced meal lesson: We will have a pizza lunch where we make individual english muffin pizzas using food from all three food categories. During all of the food exploration, student and parent volunteers will help with preparation. Everyone will have an opportunity to taste the food but no one will be forced to try anything. Simply being around the food and watching others enjoy it is a positive food experience for students. Passport to Healthy Living (Gr. 4-7)1) After lesson 3 (Plan a hike): We will make the homemade granola bar recipe from the Teacher Guide/Student Passport as an example of an environmentally friendly snack that can be packed on our hike or brought to school. 2) After lesson 4 (Plan a lunch): We will make the hummus wrap recipe from the Teacher Guide/Student Passport and serve tasting portions with sliced bell peppers and carrots as an example of a balanced and foodsafe lunch that could be packed for our hike or brought to school. 3) Before lesson 5 (Take a hike): We will pack thermoses of warm milk with cinnamon to warm us up while we have our lunch on the winter hike. Packing hot or cold milk in a thermos is an example of a foodsafe and environmentally friendly way to include milk as part of a balanced meal or healthy snack both on the hike and at school. During all of the food exploration, student and parent volunteers will help with preparation. Everyone will have an opportunity to taste the food but no one will be forced to try anything. Simply being around the food and watching others enjoy it is a positive food experience for students. |
5) Do I need to include foods from all three food categories?
If you’re applying to use money for one of the programs, please explain how you will use the money to explore all three food categories (Vegetables and fruit, Grain foods, and Protein foods). If you’re applying to use money to enhance a lesson plan that doesn’t address all areas of healthy eating, please show how you plan on using foods that are relevant for that lesson (for example including calcium-rich foods in the Bone Zone program). Consider referring to Kitchen Equipment for your Classroom for tips on how to incorporate different foods into your classroom.
6) How else can I strengthen my application?
Be sure to mention how you will use one or more of the following key nutrition principles:
- Use a neutral approach with food: There is a great deal of research to support using a neutral approach when discussing Foods to Limit (those high in fat, salt and or sugar), rather than identifying some of these choices as “junk food." Food is one of the great pleasures in life and if we label certain foods as bad, we inadvertently make those foods even more desirable!
Avoid food rewards: There is good evidence to show the benefit of avoiding the use of bribes to encourage good behaviour. Find out more about this concept here.
- Offer opportunities to taste without pressure: When it comes to food in the classroom, it’s a good idea to allow all children an equal opportunity to taste, without pressure to have "just one bite." Let each child decide if he/she will taste a food or not.
- Use commonly available foods: Exploring affordable and readily available foods further strengthens nutrition education. As such, it is strongly suggested to avoid using expensive and/or rare foods (such as dragonfruit). Here are some popular recipes, using commonly available foods, that teachers have successfully introduced in the classroom:
- Use age-appropriate activities: As with any other subject, using age-appropriate activities support behaviour change and life-long learning. A good example of this is the Food Explorers program, which provides K-1 children with hands-on experiences and pressure-free opportunities to taste a variety of food category foods. It is designed to give them the best chance at making healthy behaviour changes. Content such as food category classification and reading labels is important, but best suited for older students.
Consult your teacher guide for more on the above principles and always feel free to get in touch with us at nutrition@bcdairy.ca to learn more.
7) Can the food be used to help feed hungry children at my school?
Unfortunately, this grant is modest and is intended for educational purposes. It is in no way intended for, or capable of, addressing food security concerns.
8) How have other teachers used their grant?
Teachers from across BC share their stories with us every year. Here’s a taste.
9) How can I apply?
Contact one of the dietitians at BC Dairy Association by emailing nutrition@bcdairy.ca or calling 604-294-3775/1-800-242-6455 to learn more.
10) What happens if my application is not successful?
If your application was complete but you were not successful, we will send you a letter explaining why. You’ll have another chance to apply for funding.
For any questions or if you didn't hear back, please feel free to get in touch with us at us at nutrition@bcdairy.ca.
BC #teachers, are you teaching #nutrition in the classroom this year? Take a nutrition workshop with our RDs!
— NutritionEdBC (@NutritionEdBC)
France Langlois
Liz McCaw
BC Dairy
Nicola Erasmus
Marlene Eccles
BC Dairy
Trudy Maarhuis
Jim Smathers
BC Dairy
Judy Galpin