Hayward fifth-grader Nathaly Garnica knows about healthy food, saying, “it’s better to eat vegetables because you get sick [less often], have stronger bones, and better eyesight.”

But in the store, adds her mom, Ana Garnica, “you are bombarded with foods high in saturated fats and chemicals. [Eating healthy is] very difficult, because we are tempted by these foods and sometimes don’t want to pay attention to what nurtures our bodies.”

With the rise in childhood obesity and diabetes, families have a growing concern with eating well. But many families are tightening their budgets in the worsening economy and worry healthy food is too expensive. And it can be challenging to get kids to eat healthy food.

Families share how they overcome these barriers and create healthy, affordable, kid-friendly meals.

Talk about healthy food

Families should explain the importance of healthy food to kids—and make it fun, says Cynthia Navas, mother of a ten- and six-year-old in Los Angeles. “You can make faces with vegetables,” she suggests.

“[Tell kids,] ‘This is healthy for you and delicious too.’ Encourage [them] gently to experiment,” adds Sissy Nga Trinh, Project Coordinator for the Asian Pacific American Legal Center.

Eat Grandma’s way—take the best from traditional recipes

“My mother gave us many legumes—pinto beans, chick peas, kidney beans—as well as vegetables and fish. Now I know she did right by us and have eagerly adopted the same foods for my family,” says Garnica.

“I prefer Puerto Rican and Asian food to American food because it has more vegetables,” says 12-year-old Bruce Sang in Bakersfield. “My favorite foods are Pho (rice noodle soup) and Puerto Rican tamales made with green bananas, potatoes, pumpkins, yams and wrapped in bananas leaves.”

“Much of a family’s food budget in the US goes into meat,” adds Nga Trinh, but many traditional ethnic foods are heavy in vegetables, which are less expensive.

“Healthier ingredients can be substituted for [traditional] ones without losing the taste,” says Navas, who is originally from Nicaragua. “People who can’t live without tortillas can buy sprouted wheat tortillas or you could make salad dressing from olive oil and sea salt.”

“If you boil vegetables too much, they lose vitamins [and flavor],” adds Berta Verenga (not her real name), who has a family of five in Bakersfield. “I don’t use lard anymore. I also avoid prepared foods because they have so much added fat. I steam fish I have seasoned with spices instead of frying it.”

Prepare kid-friendly snacks

“Always have fruits and vegetables ready for the kids. Cut [them] up. If I put a watermelon whole in the fridge it stays there for weeks, but if I slice it up, the kids eat it right away,” says Nora Ortiz of the Greenfield Family Resource Center (FRC) in Bakersfield.

Bruce adds that he likes apples and carrot sticks for snacks and loves mango.

Eat at home

“People shouldn’t always go for the easiest thing [like] a fast food breakfast,” emphasizes Navas. “When I was working, I got up earlier [to prepare a healthy meal].”

In the community Nga Trinh serves, students often eat Ramen or items from fast food dollar menus because they don’t know how to cook and don’t have much money. “We found [teens are the ones who] often cook for younger siblings. The adults don’t have time be-cause [they work] low-wage jobs with long hours.”

So Nga Trinh teaches teens how to make recipes with roots in the community, from burritos to purple Thai rice. “Last week we fed 20 people with $20,” she says. “That’s cheaper than a fast food meal. Diet is a place where [kids] can have decision-making power, deal with frustrations, build community without racial and social conflict. It’s an intimate act.”

Find affordable food

Buying affordable, healthy food can be a challenge—particularly in low-income communities. “The few groceries in the neighborhood carry mostly low-quality produce,” says Nga Trinh.

Maria Marquez, who has a family of five in Huntington Park, buys food in bulk at wholesale markets to help her afford organic tomatoes, broccoli, and cauliflower. She shops at a discount grocery store and buys “quart-size yogurt and [beans and rice in] five pound bags.”

Verenga says she shops at a Mexican supermarket chain and also gets food from the Greenfield FRC and a local food bank. Family resource centers, schools, and churches may host farmers’ markets, nutrition classes, community gardens, and food banks.

Take advantage of community programs

“Everything we made was so delicious!” says Verenga about the six-week cooking class she took through the Greenfield FRC. “They showed us how to make many easy and quick recipes including smoothies and two bean and corn salad.”

Bruce also went to a Greenfield FRC cooking camp last summer—now he cooks for his younger brothers. He still remembers the veggie pizza, smoothies, and pancakes he learned to make. Before, he says, he only knew how to fry eggs.

Garnica volunteers in her children’s school garden and listens to Univision’s Spanish-language nutrition program on the radio. Nathaly participates in the school’s garden club and also in Project Eat, which offers “nutrition in the garden” lessons. “My favorite part was cooking and watering plants,” she says. “When it was rainy we would make squash soup.” Last year she tried kale and sugar snap peas for the first time.

More tips

Buying food

• Buy food in bulk and on sale—especially rice, pasta, beans
  
  
• Buy more vegetables (in season or frozen)
  
  
• Shop at a farmers’ market
  
  
• Try healthier ingredients, such as brown rice or whole wheat
  
  
• Buy organic when you can
  
  
• Store extra food, if you can, in case your family’s budget gets tighter
  
  
• Grow food—on a sunny windowsill, in your yard, in a community garden

Preparing food

• Cook instead of eating out—and add vegetables
  
  
• Make soups, stews, chili
  
  
• Freeze extra portions for a quick meal later on
  
  
• Drink water instead of soda or fruit juice
  
  
• Breastfeed infants and make your own baby food
  
  

Resources

• Healthy Eating on a Limited Budget, a radio show from Childhood Matters, provides tips from health educators and parents. www.childhoodmatters.org/2009.html (scroll down to July)
  
  
• Healthy Food on a Budget, a blog from a
  dietician in Boston, offers recipes and tips. http://healthyfoodonabudget.wordpress.com
  
  
• Champions for Change, from the Network for a Healthy California, provides recipes and tips for healthy food and activity. In English and Spanish. www.cachampionsforchange.net/en/index.php
  
  
• For local farmers’ markets (some take
  WIC vouchers or food stamps), visit
  www.cafarmersmarkets.com
  
  
• For food assistance programs, see Resources for families, from the January Children’s Advocate, at www.4children.org/issues/2009/january_february/
  (scroll down)
  
  

Extra resources from the Children’s Advocate bulletin

• Healthy Food For All: Building Equitable and Sustainable Food Systems, from PolicyLink and other organizations, discusses efforts by community residents to attract neighborhood grocery stores, expand local food production, enable food stamp use at farmers' markets, and link low-income residents to jobs.
  
  
• Roadmap to Improving Food and Physical Activity Environments, from the Healthy Eating, Active Communities Program, describes what steps successful coalitions have used to improve communities' access to healthy foods and physical activity.
  
  
• Farmers' Market and Recipe Update, from Kaiser Permanente, is a blog with recipes and tips for healthy cooking with fresh produce.
  
  

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