Recently in the Tip of the Month Category

Ahh, after a very long winter, summer is finally here! Children are excited to be on summer vacation and adults are ready to enjoy the warmer temperatures.  Even with the summer excitement, parents and childcare providers may be nervous about how their food costs will increase when children are home over the summer months. 

Families may see an increase in food expenses during the summer for several reasons:

1. Children are not in school so do not participate in school breakfast and lunch. This adds to the food cost for all families, but especially for families that receive free and reduced priced school meals.

Spring is here and so are celebrations such as graduations, weddings, birthdays, and family gatherings. These celebrations are a great opportunity for families and friends to get together. If you are hosting a party this spring, there are several things you can do to create healthy, active, and low cost celebrations.

When was the last time you went through your kitchen cupboards? Are there some items on the top shelf that need to be used? Have other items worked their way to the back and been forgotten?

Follow our five step program to keep your kitchen cupboards fresh and healthy.

1. Take everything out
This will ensure that you don't miss anything and gives you the chance to sweep out dust and crumbs, and scrub any spills. Have your child help you pile everything on the kitchen table or counters.

Download the calendar (121 K PDF)

If you've been following us on Facebook, you might have heard that March is National Nutrition Month®. This month is a perfect opportunity to take a look at your habits and see what small steps you can take toward better health.

We've made it easy for you: take our National Nutrition Month® Eat Right, Your Way, Every Day Challenge for thirty-one opportunities to make positive changes. You can print this page or this PDF, download a calendar, or follow us on Facebook. Included in the calendar and on our Facebook page are resources to help you complete some of the challenges. You may also find it helpful to dedicate a note book or computer file to recording your observations.

February is Canned Food Month! Canned food can be a great way to save money or time on items that are more expensive or labor intensive when fresh. The nutritional value of canned foods is often similar to fresh or frozen foods, but there are some things to watch out for.

Fruits

Canned is a great way to enjoy fruits when they're not in season. Fruit is packed in water, juice, or syrup. Syrup adds a lot of unwanted calories from sugar. A cup of pears in heavy syrup has 33 grams of sugar, even when drained. Compare that to a cup of pears in water, which has 15 grams sugar.

Bottom line: Choose fruits packed in water or juice, and drain fruits packed in syrup.