Shop, Cook & Eat Healthy With Your Family

This is  a sponsored post. All opinions are my own.

Last week, I had the amazing opportunity to sit in a briefing session with award-winning dietitian, Cordon-Bleu chef, and Clean Eating for Busy Families author, Michelle Dudash. Just in time for National Nutrition Month, Michelle had joined forces with the Walmart Foundation to raise awareness about the importance of school breakfast and nutrition education.

Michelle shared some great ways to help get your kids excited about healthy eating and how to make it easier to make better choices. One of those ways is to tackle your kitchen with some spring cleaning.

1. Get rid of unclean ingredients. They get in the way and you can find things easier when you’ve taken out expired foods, etc. Get rid of the leftover candy, unhealthy foods.
2. Save clear jars for your pantry. Wash out and reuse these! Great for storing dried fruit, seeds, cereal, snack mixes and VEGETABLES!
3. Showcase your produce. Don’t forget about them in the produce drawer! Store them in clear jars on a shelf in your refrigerator, instead! When they are there and easy to see, you’re going to eat them!
4. Organize your pantry, fridge and freezer. Make sure you know what’s in there and utilize what you have as much as possible! Plan your menus around what’s left in your freezer!
5. Keep healthy foods within arm’s reach. Keep a fresh bowl of fruit on the counter at home or on your desk at work! Keep them accessible and it will make it easier when you’re on your way out and need a quick snack!

This month, the Walmart Foundation is giving $6.7 million in grants to five national nonprofits that are providing thousands of students access to school breakfast  nutrition education to people of all ages. The grants are part of Walmart and the Walmart Foundation, a $2 billion cash and in-kind commitment through 2015 to help fight hunger in America.

With support from the Walmart Foundation, the following nonprofit programs are expected to reach Americans across the country over the next two years:

• Action for Healthy Kids: Provide 30,000 children at 100 schools nationwide with breakfast and nutrition education programs.
• American Association of School Administrators: Implement a universal breakfast program in six urban school districts to help feed 132,000 children over the next two years.
• Common Threads: Increase nutritional literacy and cooking skills among 20,000 low-income children and their families with a year-round program that will be expanded to 20 schools in both Chicago and Miami.
• Gaston & Porter Health Improvement Center: Expand nutrition education for current participants, graduates and facilitators in Chicago, Washington, D.C. and the surrounding area, and Philadelphia of Prime Time Sister Circles®, a culturally-competent intervention program designed for African American women ages 40-75.
• National 4-H Council: Educate 74,000 at-risk children and their families about nutritional choices and food security challenges by expanding nutrition education programming in 22 states.

How do you promote healthy eating with your children?