The original Food, Fun, & Reading program was developed by Diane Mincher (retired), University of Vermont Extension, in 2000 in accordance with the USDA’s MyPyramid guidelines. In 2018, Utah State University Extension updated and revised the curriculum with permission to align with USDA’s current MyPlate guidelines.

The curriculum is intended for youth in upper preschool through second grade and consists of a series of six 45-minute lessons. Each of the six lessons includes the following components:

• Reading a book related to MyPlate or a MyPlate food group;
• Discussing foods that are included in the food group(s) and why the foods are healthy;
• Tasting a healthy snack that includes ingredients from the food group; and
• Playing a fun, physically active game.

It is recommended to teach the MyPlate lesson first, but the other lessons can be taught in any order. Each lesson includes several handouts to send home to parents to reinforce the lesson.

Primary learning outcomes for the lessons are for children to be able to do the following:

• Learn about the USDA’s MyPlate;
• Understand why eating foods from each of the food groups is healthy; and
• Correctly identify nutritious foods that fit into the each MyPlate food group.

In addition, secondary outcomes, which we are currently investigating in a pilot study, include changes in children’s eating behavior such as requesting foods from the various food groups and eating more foods from the MyPlate food groups at home.