Fruits and Vegetables

Make fruits and vegetables part of every meal and snack.

Fruits and vegetables are an important part of a healthy diet and should be incorporated into the meals and snacks served at every child care home or center. Below you will find resources that will help you increase the amount of fruits and vegetables that you serve to the children in your care.

Best Practices

The resources on this page can help child care programs reach all of the following best practices:

  • “Offer fruit (not juice) at least 2 times a day.”
  • “Offer vegetables (not fried) at least 2 times a day.”
  • “Offer vegetables, other than potatoes, corn or green beans 1 or more times per day.”
  • “Prepare cooked vegetables without added meat fat, margarine or butter.”
  • “Serve fruit canned in its own juice, fresh, or frozen all of the time.”

Resources to incorporate more fruits and vegetables: 

  • Child Meal Pattern for Child and Adult Care Food Program

Summary: Outlines the CACFP federal program food pattern requirements for infants and children.
Source: United States Department of Agriculture Food and Nutrition Service
Access: https://www.cacfp.org/meal-pattern-guidance/

  • Child Nutrition Recipe Box

Summary: USDA standardized recipes that support child nutrition.
Source: United States Department of Agriculture Food and Nutrition Service
Access: https://theicn.org/cnrb/

  • Farm to School Directory

Summary: This search tool allows child care providers to search for local produce suppliers.
Source: Taste the Local Difference
Access: https://www.localdifference.org/find-food-farms/farm-to-school-directory/

  • Food Buying Guide for Child Nutrition Programs

Summary: This Food Buying Guide is available in three formats: an interactive web-based tool, a mobile app, or a printable document. It makes it easy to search and navigate food lists for the CACFP program. In both the web-based tool and the mobile app, a profile can be created to save food items to a favorites list.
Source: United States Department of Agriculture
Access: https://www.fns.usda.gov/tn/fbg

  • Go Nutrition and Physical Activity Self-Assessment for Child Care (Go NAPSACC) Bilingual Self-Assessments

Summary: Contacting a consultant and completing the online version of the Go NAPSACC assessments opens up a suite of planning, learning, and implementation tools to understand further what the health best practices are and how to reach them at your child care.
Source: Go Nutritional and Physical Activity Self-Assessment for Child Care (Go NAPSACC)
Access: https://gonapsacc.org/our-focus-areas

  • Healthy Kids, Healthy Future

Summary: Under the section of "Nurture Healthy Eaters," find child activities and other resources by clicking on the left-hand menu.
Source: The Nemours Foundation
Access: https://healthykidshealthyfuture.org/5-healthy-goals/nurture-healthy-eaters/resources/ 

  • Local Food for Little Eaters - A Purchasing Toolbox for the Child & Adult Care Food Program

Summary: This toolkit is designed to help early care providers purchase local food for their programs. It gives step-by-step instructions for purchasing from a variety of local food sources. The instructions include successful strategies and examples of how early childhood programs nationwide are purchasing local food.
Source: Michigan State University - Center for Regional Food Systems
Access: https://www.canr.msu.edu/resources/local-food-for-little-eaters

  • Making Healthy Choices: Newsletters for Parents

Summary: Nutrition newsletters designed for parents, featuring tips for consuming more fruits and vegetables and the corresponding health benefits. In particular, see Week 3 – Love your veggies, Week 4 – Enjoy Fruit, Week 11 – Beyond Fresh, and Week 21: Get more veggies.
Source: Michigan State University Extension
Access: https://www.canr.msu.edu/making_healthy_choices/newsletters-for-parents

  • Michigan Community Supported Agriculture (CSAs) Network

Summary: This search tool allows child care providers to search for local produce suppliers.
Source: Michigan CSA Network
Access: https://www.michigancsanetwork.org/

  • Model Policies for Creating a Healthy Nutrition and Physical Activity Environment in Child Care Settings

Summary: This nutrition toolkit describes model policies and provides tips to on how to fulfill them.
Source: Missouri Department of Health and Senior Services, Bureau of Community Food and Nutrition Assistance
Access: https://health.mo.gov/living/dnhs_pdfs/ChildCareModelPolicies.pdf

  • Nutrition and Wellness Tips for Young Children

Summary: Collection of tip sheets for nutrition and physical activity. Each tip sheet focuses on a specific topic and includes a practical application section to help apply tips to a child care program for children ages 2 through 5 years old. See pages 5-17.
Source: United States Department of Agriculture Food and Nutrition Service
Access: https://www.yoursforchildren.com/nutrition-resources/TeamNutrition/Nutrition%20&%20Wellness%20Tips%20for%20Young%20Children%20--%20English.pdf

  • Seasonal Produce Guide

Summary: See what is available in spring, summer, fall, and winter. Clicking on each item will take you to further information and educational resources about it.
Source: Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program – Education, United States Department of Agriculture
Access: https://snaped.fns.usda.gov/resources/nutrition-education-materials/seasonal-produce-guide

  • Team Nutrition Resources for Child Care

Summary: Team Nutrition, under the USDA, provides training and technical assistance to child care providers and program operators, CACFP best practices, nutrition and developmental education for providers and families, and resources to support a healthier environment. Educational or promotional material can be downloaded for free, or ordered from Team Nutrition.
Source: United States Department of Agriculture Food and Nutrition Service
Access: https://www.fns.usda.gov/tn/child-care-organization

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