What's really in the package
It seemed no matter where I looked, I found ingredients in the foods I was giving my children that could potentially harm them. I needed to be better informed!

I became active in our local school district's nutrition policy formation and in my local farm-to-school movement. When Kurt Dammeier, owner of Beecher's Handmade Cheese, wanted to start a nonprofit program to teach kids about making better food choices, I gleefully jumped aboard. The first Pure Food Kids Workshop took place in 2006. That's 350 sessions ago to date.

Commercial food producers can be very good at making their food "fun" so that kids will want to eat it. Lively colors, cartoon characters and giveaways get the kids' attention; nutritional claims get the parents to give in and buy the item. The challenge for kids and parents alike is to look beyond the marketing and learn what's really in the package. In our workshop, we teach kids to become "food detectives": how to find clues on the packaging of processed foods and how to decipher some of the additives they may contain.

Tasting something new
We also bring into the classroom peppers, onions and other ingredients for a vegan chili. The kids -- some of whom have never cooked at home -- do all the chopping and measuring right at their desks. This activity can turn them on to helping out in their own kitchens, and also on to tasting something new, like red bell peppers.

Most of us are so disconnected from our food and its sources. It's hard to understand how commercial foods are manufactured, let alone what we really need to keep our bodies healthy. Our children are relying on us to help guide them through a labyrinth of choices; if we get our kids involved in the making of their food, they're more likely to choose wisely.

Connecting kids with food should be as enjoyable for you as it is for them.

For example, when kids have the chance to help make something themselves, they're more likely to try it. Let them help with menu planning once a week, going through a cookbook together and choosing one item that they'd like to help make.

In the classroom, we use plastic lettuce knives to chop our vegetables. The knives are colorful, safe and inexpensive. I highly recommend them for teaching kids proper knife safety.

Once children learn that all the FD&C colors are derived from petroleum or coal tar and that they might be bad for you, they start thinking twice about eating them. Preservatives with the abbreviated names BHA, BHT and TBHQ are also petroleum-based, easy to spot and associated with potential health problems. High-fructose corn syrup (HFCS), amazingly, is on many kids' radars already as something they want to avoid.

Make the focus on food being "good," not just healthy. Take kids to a farmers market and pick out vegetables and fruits together. Teach them how to spot a really great tomato or a perfect peach, and let them eat it with the juice running down their chins. Connect them with the people who grow their food and it will build a better understanding about the importance of real food in real life.