Next month Alice Waters will co-host the panel Beyond Chicken Nuggets: How to Raise a Healthy Eater as part of the New York City Wine and Food Festival.   So if you happen to be in New York next month I highly recommend going to check it out.   Alice has done remarkable work reconnecting young students to healthy, sutainable food through programs such as The School Lunch Initiative and the Edible Schoolyard.

Photo: Matt Dunn for The New York Times

Hearing Alice speak earlier this month at Slow Food Nation, has inspired me to get involved with a gardening and cooking program with young people.   In college I taught a nature program with 2nd and 3rd graders, taking them on nature walks, hosting live animal demonstrations, and teaching them the bee dance. Cooking and gardening with my nieces and nephews has also taught me so much about the importance of involving kids in where there food production.   Educating children about nutritious and sustainable food has far-reaching effects beyond a healthy diet, allowing them to gain self-confidence, independence, and social skills.

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My nieces and nephews have taught me much about how children approach food and how difficult it can be to get them to eat their vegetables. Yesterday, The New York Times highlighted 6 Food Mistakes Parents Make and it confirmed that holding dessert ransom or demanding just one bite will not encourage kids to eat a healthy array of foods.

This summer I succeeded in getting my nephew to try roasted rosemary beets by offering them as part of the meal that everyone was enjoying, and telling him about the farm where they were grown. I kept the offer casual and when he thought no one was looking, he quietly took a nibble. Pretty soon he was reaching for a second helping. Kids become enthusiastic about meals when they know where the food came from and how it was prepared, so bring them out to the garden and into the kitchen. I’m not her biggest advocate, but even Rachel Ray is getting into it.

Here are 6 common mistakes parents make followed by a few tips of my own that can help avoid caving to the demands of a finicky and narrow palate:

1. Keeping kids out of the kitchen: Kids are more likely to enjoy what they eat and to try new things if they have a hand in creating the meal

2. Coercing them to take just one more bite: Avoid rewards or punishments, which often backfire, and instead keep the food on the table and encourage them to try it.

3. Stowing sweets and salty snacks out of reach: Don’t increase the allure of the forbidden; rather, make healthful snacks abundant and accessible.

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Move over Rachel Ray, teens are moving in.

The Food Network is cooking up a new show called The Chef Jeff Project. Chef Jeff Henderson grew up in South Central LA and at the age of 24 he was arrested. sent to prison and spent the next 10 years behind bars. While in prison, he discovered his love for food and cooking and decided to turn his life around.

And he certainly did. He is the Executive Chef of Cafe Bellagio in Las Vegas, a best selling author and with the Food Network,  he is about to change the lives of 6 at-risk youths. Jeff is putting these teenagers to work at Posh Urban Cuisine, his catering company and ultimately giving them a chance to for a new life with a career in the culinary arts.

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Slow Food Nation is heating things up in San Francisco next week with the first-ever American gathering to unite the growing sustainable food movement

Food enthusiasts, chefs, bloggers, filmmakers, policy makers and change makers will experience tastings, panels and films to introduce people to food that is good, clean and fair.

Participant media is hosting a conversation and screening on Sunday August 31st. Eric Schlosser and Michael Pollan are joining us for a conversation with Food Inc director Robert Kenner. The discussion will be followed by a screening of Pressure Cooker.

Let us know if you will be at Slow Food Nation and takepart by sending us your healthy food tip!

See you in San Fran!

Related:
Hungry for Change

A sugary story of ridiculousness, “Sprinkles Cupcakes” (a California cupcake company) is suing “Famous Cupcakes” for using its trademarked “Modern Dot” cupcake design as a ploy to steal customers. That’s right one cupcake company is suing another for using a giant circular sprinkle in the middle of their cupcake…

Above is a picture of a Sprinkles Cupcake - after the jump is a picture of a Famous Cupcake called the Poinsettia cupcake…

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Pressure Cooker is premiering tomorrow at the LA Film Festival.

This inspiring and thrilling documentary profiles the lives of three Northeast Philadelphia high school seniors, each from different backgrounds with unique hardships, but with the shared goal of winning a citywide cooking competition for a scholarship to one of the country’s best culinary schools. Their unlikely hero is the unorthodox teacher, Mrs. Stephenson, who tests their limits and inspires their personal growth in the classroom and at home.

Are you in Los Angeles? Join us for a screening!

Saturday, June 21st 7:30pm
Mann Festival Theatre

Tuesday, June 24th 7:15pm
The Landmark

Wednesday, June 25th 1:45pm
The Regent

Get more information on the film and the screenings at the LA Film Festival website.

takepart with the Careers through Culinary Arts Program (C-CAP).