Phew! The kids came, they sliced, they squashed, they ate and they had a great time. My daughters, my husband and I hosted our first ever Food Revolution Day house party this weekend and it was a blast. I wanted to share some of the incredible highlights from our event in the hope that you might consider hosting a food education event for kids one day.
Let me start off by reminding you that last week I shared our plan of attack for this event in another post. I have to say that planning and preparing for this party were key to success. The only part of our planning that was a little challenging was the date. Food Revolution Day fell on a long weekend. This meant that there were a lot of kids who couldn't make it as they were heading out of town for the weekend. We invited my daughter's entire class (23 kids) and ended up with 15 kids. To be honest, this probably worked out to our advantage, because we had the right amount of space for the 15 kids. Which lead to our preparation.
Thanks to the incredible team at Sobeys for sponsoring Food Revolution Day events across Canada. The night before our event my daughter and I went to our local Sobeys to shop for all of our fresh produce and baked goods. Spring is such an incredible time to head to the produce section...so much delicious Ontario grown produce on the shelves.
We went home and did all the prep work. We brought up an extra table, borrowed cutting boards from my siblings, cleaned and prepared the vegetables, and set out sandwich colouring sheets for the kids to work on as they arrived.
All the kids were super enthusiastic. We got right down to making our Squash It Sandwiches. As they chopped the vegetables we discussed what vegetables they grow at home, the different types of vegetables they like to eat. We talked about how each ingredient grows, how to best slice each vegetable and what other colours shapes and sizes of the vegetables they have seen. Our discussion about cauliflower was awesome! There are so many different colours of cauliflower available. 
At every step of the way the kids were totally excited...and while they could get a little distracted...it was fairly easy to bring them back to the task at hand. Clearly, the squashing part of the sandwich was one of the best parts. When are kids ever allowed to bang something with a rolling pin?!
In the end, it was super rewarding to hear the kids say "This is the best sandwich!" "Can I make another one?" "Can I take a sandwich home?" 
I have always believed that if you give children the chance to get hands on, make it themselves, they will try anything. They all might not have loved the food, but every single child tried the food. Every single kid learned something at the Food Revolution Day party and that really was the goal of the whole event. Food education leads to children making healthier food choices and leading healthier and happier lives. 
We sent each child home with a copy of the Squash It sandwich recipe to try making at home with their families. The feedback from parents has been great too. A super successful Food Revolution Day house party event.
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