The Veggication of Your Grandkid

Even if your own kids turned out fine despite eating nothing but plain spaghetti and crackers for the first six years of their lives, there's something upsetting about seeing your grandchildren surviving on chicken fingers when they come to visit.

Veggiecation is a program for schools that links lessons in the classroom to experiences in the lunchroom. The idea is to introduce students to some tastier ways to enjoy vegetables, while providing some nutrition education.

The program was developed by Lisa Suriano, whose family business is providing food service management to independent schools.

"I was fortunate to be raised in a household where we always had access to fresh vegetables," she says. "One of my goals was to provide teachers with a fun, easy tool to teach young students that eating vegetables is not only important for their health, but also, that vegetables are delicious and fun."

The nine-month program includes lesson plans with corresponding recipes for food service managers, Veggie of the Month posters and a theme song CD with sheet music.

For most of us, when we were kids, eating vegetables was positioned as something we had to do because it was good for us. I remember sitting at the dining table after everyone else was gone, staring at the boiled Brussels sprouts on my plate, trying to get up the nerve to choke down a couple.

Today, parents take a friendlier approach to getting kids to form healthy habits, and the Veggication program is a good example.

If you want to try this approach on your grandchildren, the Veggication folks have some tips:

Pick your battles. Boiled spinach and roasted Brussels sprouts are probably not going to fly down kids' throats, no matter how fun you try to make them seem. Select sweeter veggies like carrots and peas for starters.

Repeat as needed. Don't try once or twice and then give up. Keep a plate of fresh-cut raw vegetables available to snack on, especially in that ravenous 30 minutes before dinnertime.

Get them hands on. Let your grandchildren help out with peeling and preparing vegetables. Cut them into interesting shapes. Get creative: Slice sweet potatoes and then let kids cut them with a cookie cutter. They will be more willing to try something that they've had a hand in creating.

Start small. Offer a "tasting cup" with just a tiny amount of the vegetable in question. A small, contained portion of a new food is less intimidating and more intriguing to kids.

 Get crazy with dips. Try a variety of different dips served with raw or blanched veggies to keep it interesting. A peanut butter and maple syrup dip will cover up that distressing vegetable flavor just fine.

Ask their opinion. Kids love to tell you what they think. Tell them that you want their feedback on the vegetable you're introducing and the way it's prepared. They will be more likely to give it a try if they know they can say they don't like it.