WISE Target foods are easily accessible and come in a variety of forms.

Food experiences, songs, games,and activities guide students to explore WISE foods and learn healthy eating in playful ways.

Materials and methods to connect to families in accessible, appealing ways is provided through WISE.

Who is Windy?

Windy is a barn owl that flies to and from farms bringing letters from the farmer which introduce kids to fruits and vegetables. Windy loves bringing new fruits and vegetables from the farm each month for the children to try.

Why is Windy Important?

• Children are more likely to select and prefer foods associated with familiar characters.
• Studies show that children learn and retain more when educators use familiar characters like Windy with their lessons.
• Children associate the fun of the Windy puppet with the WISE lesson. This makes children more likely to form positive relationships with WISE fruits and vegetables.
• Children often talk about Windy with their families. This means your WISE message gets home to parents and siblings.

Windy connects the lessons to the home environment

WISE recommends sending a copy of Windy’s letter from the farmer home each month so that families stay engaged with the target fruit or vegetable.

WISE has content available to post on your program’s social media pages.

Materials for parent connections and program sponsored “family night” activities at your program are available including recipes that families can try together.

Educators can use WISE to encourage students and families to discover fresh vegetables and fruits in authentic, developmentally appropriate ways. Providing evidence-based training to staff who will be executing WISE is key to the programs success. Why? Because educator role modeling matters!

Research shows that children are more likely to try new foods when the teacher provides healthy role modeling. Years of experience in observation of school/after-school mealtimes and food experiences revealed that educators often pressure students to consume food regardless of hunger cues. These attitudes often stem from a teacher’s personal history with food or lack of knowledge in nutrition. WISE educator training cuts mealtime fuss and positions teachers and staff to influence positive life-long eating habits.

WISE offers a 6-hour professional development course that covers: the impact of educators as role models, recommendations for positively influencing children’s eating habits, and how to implement WISE in the classroom

12 top kid-friendly food practices