Welcome to the Taste & Learn™ for Early Years program!
Long day care centres are ideally placed to help increase children’s vegetable intake.
Long day care centres can be supported to:
- Provide more vegetables in snacks and meals
- Create supportive mealtime environments
- Improve children’s familiarity with vegetables through play and learning experiences.
Taste & Learn™ for Early Years is an evidence-based program supporting educators in Long Day Care. It aims to increase children’s vegetable enjoyment and willingness to eat vegetables.
Taste & Learn™ for Early Years is designed and written by leading experts, including research scientists, nutritionists and educators.
About Taste & Learn™ for Early Years
- An 8-week structured program for children aged 2-5 years
- Includes 16 teaching sessions approx. 20 minutes each, delivered twice weekly
- Includes 16 snack time activities approx. 10 minutes each, delivered twice weekly
- All activity components contribute to a number of National Quality Standards (NQS), Early Years Learning Framework (EYLF) and developmental skills.
Download the resources
Download a copy of the Taste & Learn ™ for Early Years program by clicking on the document.
Download the ‘Our Vegetable Adventure’ Chart. The chart motivates and encourages children to participate in activities and be ‘Food Adventurers’. See page 76 of the curriculum for tips to use the chart.
Other resources
- The Taste & Learn™ for Early Years resource is developed in the VegKIT Project. VegKIT research has indicated that long day care centres can increase vegetable enjoyment and acceptance when Taste & Learn™ for Early Years is used in conjunction with HEAS online staff training modules. Training for the early childhood sector | Healthy Eating Advisory Service
- Visit Taste & Learn™ (csiro.au) for Taste & Learn™ in primary schools
- Visit www.vegkit.com.au for more resources and tools to increase children’s vegetable consumption in a variety of settings
Funding acknowledgement
This project has been funded by Hort Innovation, using the vegetable research and development levy and contributions from the Australian Government. Hort Innovation is the grower-owned, not-for-profit research and development corporation for Australian horticulture. The project is underpinned by a consortium of members from CSIRO, Flinders University and Nutrition Australia Victoria Division.
