Hello everyone! We hope your June is starting out well, and
that you’ll drop by this week’s delicious Pathfinder Produce at the Village
Commons on Thursday from noon to 5 p.m. Our fresh Hoop House-Pathfinder grown
greens are available and all our produce can help you create colorful and
healthy meals for your family.
Our thanks go out to all who supported this year’s Splash Path 5k
and Fun Walk: On a picture-perfect day, Splash Path had over 350 runners,
walkers and guests, 20 vendors, and over 40 key sponsors. We are pleased to
announce that through everyone’s generosity, we raised over $21,000 in support
of our Pathfinder Produce Mobile Market. This latest initiative, part of
Pathfinder’s Adult Day Services programming, is extending our reach into the
community and providing area families with greater access to fresh fruits and
vegetables. THANK YOU!!!!
Below, my colleague Martha Spiegel shares a fun way to approach
the age-old question, “What’s for dinner??!!
***
I
heard a story the other day about a family that has a unique way of choosing
the vegetable for the evening meal. To make their young children feel
more involved in meal planning, they place a collection of small colored discs
in a bag. Each color is assigned to a vegetable—orange for carrots, green for
spinach, red for beets, yellow for corn, white for cauliflower, and so on,
depending on what’s on hand. A child reaches into the bag and pulls out a disc.
Whatever color it is, that’s the vegetable for the meal.
They
have found that this method removes a lot of the dinnertime discontent for
several reasons. First, it’s a fun game! The children look forward to their
turn to choose the vegetable. They also feel invested in the meal, because it
was their choice; they had a part in putting the menu together, and thus are
less reluctant to eat their vegetables. Another benefit is that mom and dad
don’t have to choose every night. (For me, having someone else do part of the
meal planning is a big plus!)
Another
benefit for this family, and why they started the game to begin with, is that
one of their children has Autism. He has difficulties making decisions,
even about such things as “What vegetable would you like with dinner tonight?”
All he has to do is pick a disc out of the bag and the choice is made.
The colors are pre-assigned to specific vegetables each night, so the difficulty of deciding is gone, and he still has made the selection.
I
could see this game working well for many families with children. It makes
choosing the vegetable fun and keeps variety in the menu. The game could
be adapted for other purposes as well when routine choices are made. If you
give it a try, let us know how it
goes!
Until
next time, make great selections!
Martha
(and Lori)
