Creative and Healthy Cafeteria Ideas


Line
Home › Educator Tools › Take Action Ideas ›

Everyone wins with HKC’s creative cafeteria tips. Tasty, likable and healthy meals are a key component of a healthy environment and provide a great backdrop for learning by example. 

Healthy Kids Challenge® can help your school with ideas that work best with your wants, needs and resources.  HKC resources can help you meet the USDA's HealthierUS School Challenge!

 

Boy eating cereal in a bowl

Cafeteria Impact!
Simple actions reinforce HKC's 6 healthy messages and help kids on the road to academic success

  1. Fruits & Veggies – Every Day the Tasty Way 
  2. Snack Attack
  3. Active Play, Balance My Day
  4. Breakfast GO Power
  5. Smart Servings
  6. Drink Think
  
*KidLinks™
Take Action for Healthy Eating and Physical Activity!

Show off! 

 fast food restaurants "sell". Let "Fruits & Veggies Every Day the Tasty Way kick-off healthy "ads".

  • Have a class create a fruit and veggie wall art.
  • Or have a school-wide fruit and veggie wall art contest.  Frame and prominently display the winner’s art.
  • Add fun trivia and healthy tips to the wall art.

Set up a display!

Help people SEE how Smart Servings, can make a difference.

  • Show the difference between choosing the small rather than large size fries.
  • Assuming the choice is made about once a week, the average fat savings for a year would be around 3 lbs. (three 1-lb. cans of shortening)

More ideas like this can be found in the HKC idea booklet Setting Up for Success.
 

Role model.

Choose a wellness goal and sign-up for My Healthy Challenge.
Each month, receive a simple challenge and tips for healthy habits.

  • Challenge co-workers to join your challenge.  For example, choose Active Play, Balance My Day with a goal to add 5 more minutes of physical activity to every day.  Come up 30 different 5-minute ideas (one ideas for each day of the month) to move.  Ideas include a 5-minute walk around the building, 5-minutes of Frisbee, or how about a 5-minute hopscotch game?
     
  • Create teams to see who can come up with the most fun, creative ideas. 
     
  • Track team results and post your ideas for meeting the challenge in the cafeteria. 

Connect with kids.

Student advisory groups are one great way to connect!  Build on a Breakfast GO Power message. 

  • Try out a couple of new breakfast menu ideas such as a yogurt parfait or a breakfast frittata.
  • Have a student group taste and choose their favorite item(s).
  • Ask the students to develop and implement a "marketing" plan. 
  • Have the advisory group survey other students to determine other items or changes that would increase the number of times they choose breakfast at school.

Help people be aware of your “Creative Cafeteria”.

  • Post changes you are making (with pictures) on your school or organization’s Web site.
  • Include short “healthy tips” for families. HKC’s WOWS E-Newsletter has a simple cut-and- paste family tip in most issues. 
  • Let HKC help you meet the HealthierUS School Challenge (HUSSC), a voluntary initiative to recognize those schools participating in the National School Lunch Program that have created healthier school environments through promotion of nutrition and physical activity. 

HKC uses evidenced based information and best practices to help school-based initiatives and youth organizations nationwide. HKC works with you to implement simple healthy eating-physical solutions adapted for your needs, resources, and recipients.
 

*KidLink™:  A HKC term used to describe people who can help kids make healthy eating and physical activity choices a habit.