Multicultural Foods and Food Variety

Posted on: Wednesday March 14th, 2018

Posted by: Lisa Ruscica

At our Kidco Kitchens we emphasize the importance of serving your children a range of ethnically diverse foods, which have a variety of flavours, textures and colours. The Kidco Kitchens provide all of our centres with hot lunches, yummy snacks, milk, fresh fruit and vegetables daily, not to mention everything is made from scratch! Every week the Kidco Kitchen includes a vegetarian meal and fish on the menu to ensure that the kiddies are receiving all the essential vitamins and minerals that they need to grow. You can make these easy and healthy meals at home for your families as well to make sure your kids are getting a variety of foods and that they are being exposed to various cultures. Check out our family sized recipes on the Kidco Kitchen website at https://kitchen.kidsandcompany.com/recipe/.

It is important to include ethnically diverse foods in children’s diets to help them expand their palette and food choices from a young age! Food variety means that your children are eating a different food from each of the five food groups, in the recommended amounts depending on age and gender. For kiddies in particular it is important that you choose a variety of foods because it helps children maintain a healthy, interesting diet, while providing a large range of nutrients for their bodies. When children are exposed to various food options at a young age it has been proven that they are less likely to be picky eaters in the future! In addition to them being less picky they will also be more likely to choose many varied nutritional options as they grow up.

An amazing benefit of living in North America is the exposure that we have to so many multicultural foods. I love exploring new areas of Toronto sampling the wide variety of smells and tastes from different communities. At Kids & Company our menu represents many different countries around the world, focusing on their delicious signature dishes. Everything from Veggie Pad Thai, Best Butter Chicken, Fancy Fish Tacos, Beef Barley Stew and Turkey Noodle Doodle... bet you wish you were having lunch at Kids & Company!

Don’t forget to follow us on Twitter @kidcochildcare and on Instagram @cheflisaruscica!

Cheers,

Chef Lisa Ruscica

Chief Food Ambassador