Tell us the truth: are you looking for something fun and interesting to celebrate National Nutrition Month with your clients this year, or are you wanting to recycle the same old National Nutrition Month ideas you’ve been using for years?
Let’s turn off autopilot and leverage this National Nutrition Month to truly celebrate how nutrition can be an exciting adventure. We have the tools for you to use to empower your community to feel great; tools that let you focus on the fun and progress your clients are making.
(Psss…many of these ideas are remote learning-friendly!)
National Nutrition Month comes after many people have tried and lost steam with new year’s resolutions and quick fixes – let’s help our audience to find sustainable wellness!
Registered Dietitian Nutritionists are the nutrition experts and this giant list of National Nutrition Month ideas has something for everyone; from community groups, workplace wellness, schools and physician offices, to sports teams and more.
Community Connections
Nutrition month ideas do not need to be a boring talk – nutrition education can be woven into many different settings in your local community. Nor do community ideas need to be in person. Effective nutrition education can be engaging and fun – virtually! Getting active in your community raises awareness for you and your business as well as the profession as a whole. If meeting in person, be sure to use our sign-in sheet to keep track of your new contacts.
- Get on the radio or on TV! The general public can greatly benefit from your expertise and our 9 Tips to Land a Broadcast Segment show you (yes, you!) how to make it happen.
- Start a Podcast or apply to be a guest speaker on a podcast. With more and more people listening to podcasts, this is an opportunity to showcase your nutrition knowledge to a new audience.
- Get back to your roots and visit a farm or greenhouse. While there may not be much growing this early in the spring, farmers are hard at work preparing for the growing season. You may get to visit tiny plants that start growing in your local greenhouses! Or, ask your local farmer to host a virtual tour or talk.
- Volunteer at your local food bank and help those who need it most. Hosting a touch-free food drive can raise awareness and much-needed supplies for your local community. Be sure to ask your local food bank if they have specific foods and personal care items that they need the most.
- Join a health fair. If you’ve never hosted a table at a health fair, the How to Host an Engaging Table guide will boost your confidence quickly!
Workplace Wellness
We may spend more time with our co-workers than we do with our families in an average week. And we are influenced by the people we spend the most time with. The workplace is a powerful zone to create new habits that benefit everyone! Our vendors have National Nutrition Month ideas that can be implemented in person or virtually. So whether you’re a dietitian providing nutrition education to your own coworkers or your business is providing corporate wellness programming, we have ideas for you!
- Play Jeopardy: Nutrition Jeopardy is a creative opportunity to settle which department is nutrition-savvy, once and for all. Don’t forget the healthy snacks!
- Have a 10k step challenge. Walking meetings instead of more time in a stuffy conference room boost steps and brain power.
- Make healthy easy with our Healthy Eating Hacks for Busy Professionals presentation.
- Keep the wellness going with our 12 Month Workplace Wellness Guide.
For even more nutrition month ideas for the workplace, read our blog post: Best Workplace Wellness Activities the Whole Office Will Love.
Celebrating at Schools
Of all the National Nutrition Month ideas listed, this section is one of our favorites here at WellResourced. Kids are spunky, curious and love to get off of the computer and learn with their hands.
Food and nutrition can be tools to teach many things, from counting to math. If you’re feeling a bit out of touch, our 2021 Food and Nutrition Trends guide is a clue to what the younger generations are prioritizing with their food choices.
- Decorate the classroom with new healthy posters – whether that is at home or in the school building.
- Work nutrition education into lesson plans. The Five Senses Placemat bundle includes teacher and parent lesson plans to make food exploration fun!
- Host a smoothie bar – our How to Build a Balanced Smoothie Handout guides your class to getting the most nutrition into the blender and still achieving great taste!
- Read stories about nutrition, working through picky eating, and cooking around the world during storytime.
- Play Nutrition Jeopardy with our Nutrition Jeopardy Activity for Kids. We all learn more when we’re having fun!
- Tour a local farm or greenhouse.
- Calculate how much sugar is in common drinks and foods and measure it out.
- Meal Building Class – College students especially might be in need of guidance as to how to eat well, quickly and on a budget. Our Easy and Balanced Meal Handout is a helpful tool for this presentation!
- Food taste-testing can be an opportunity to try new and unique fruits and vegetables and new cuisine from around the world. Use our Kids Taste Test worksheet to let your food adventurers tally their data. If your classrooms are doing remote learning, using a thumbs up/thumbs down as they try new foods strategy can allow them to offer feedback while still on mute.
- Think beyond National Nutrition Month! Our School Wellness Library offers you the tools and resources to weave wellness into the entire school year.
Partnering with Physicians
Partnering with a physician is a partnership that benefits everyone! From women wanting to eat better during pregnancy to a newly diagnosed person with diabetes learning about carbohydrates, dietitians can propel their nutrition goals forward. National Nutrition Month is the perfect opportunity to forge connections with new referral partners.
- Nutrition for a healthy pregnancy – moms-to-be may be motivated to eat healthfully, but there are a lot of myths and misconceptions about what that means. Our Pregnancy Nutrition Bundle gives you the tools to discuss nutrition, food safety and tips to incorporate gentle movement.
- Host a virtual workshop that is specific to the physician’s niche. For example, Nutrition and Cancer, Pediatric Nutrition, Nutrition for Picky Eaters and Nutrition after Bariatric Surgery are all specific niches that tend to be highly motivated groups to improve their nutrition. You are the expert that they need!
Super-Fueled Sports
Athletes can harness the power of good fueling when dietitians provide the education, tools and support to do so! Registered dietitians provide tailored advice to the specified needs of athletes during National Nutrition Month and beyond! Athletes will appreciate the benefits as they see their performance improve. And if their team is not playing right now, implementing proper nutrition strategies can be a positive thing to focus on when they’re missing game day. And when you’re armed with the right sports nutrition handouts, your job is easy!
- Build a Snack Workshop: guide athletes through snacks that support their optimal performance using our Healthy Snacking for Athletes guide.
- Host a Sports Nutrition Workshop to educate the whole team (don’t forget to invite their parents!).
- Give a cookbook away to your teams you meet with or offer it as an opt-in for new subscribers on your list.
For more information about becoming a CSSD Certified Dietitian, check out our blog post: Everything You Need to Know About Becoming a Certified Specialist in Sports Dietetics (CSSD).
Intuitive Eating Exploration
Intuitive eating is on the radar for dietitians and consumers alike. Intuitive eating is a great fit for those who are frustrated by yo yo dieting and overwhelmed at the grocery store. National Nutrition Month is an opportunity for all of us to slow down and tune into what we’re eating, instead of multitasking. Here are a few Nutrition Month ideas to consider:
- Screen-free eating challenge. Challenge your audience to eat meals and snacks without the distraction of any screens, including the TV at dinner!
- The 14-day Self-Care Challenge is a welcome opportunity to relax and reduce stress.
- The slowest chip wins the race. Give all participants ten chocolate chips. The “winner” is the person who enjoys the chips the most slowly; close your eyes and enjoy that chocolate melting on your tongue!
- Journaling is an opportunity to reset and refocus. Our 30-Day Guided Wellness Journal provides prompts for the whole month!
For more information about intuitive eating, check out our blog post: What Does an Intuitive Eating Dietitian Actually Do.
Family Fun
It can be all too easy to fall into the usual routine of go-to meals and takeout. National Nutrition Month ideas are a chance to reinvigorate our joy of eating healthfully – families need your help to make changes that are realistic and sustainable. A few ideas for working with families include:
- Boosting vegetables: your clients will be amazed at how many ways you can include more vegetables in their favorite Latin dishes with this free download.
- Build a snack workshop: teach families how to make Balanced Snacks that last and stop the constant requests for additional snacks.
- Make Food Fun with all of the ideas packed into our presentation.
- Keep cooking safe by monitoring food temperatures. Our Kitchen Infographics are informative and cute enough to post on the fridge!
with all of the ideas packed into our presentation.
Supermarket savvy
Shopping can be so confusing – what do all of those claims on the label even mean? Shopping with your clients and community can empower them to make strides on their goals. So whether you’re meeting your clients in the store, or providing guidance virtually, your clients will appreciate your guidance to make shopping less confusing.
- Grocery store tours can be an opportunity to teach label reading, help a newly diagnosed person with celiac find gluten-free choices, a vegetarian to find a variety of plant-based choices and the reluctant shopper to be comfortable with how to pick perfect fruit and vegetables. We even have The Intuitive Pregnancy Grocery Guide for that niche, too!
- Building a better salad will be an engaging, hands-on activity if your grocery store has a salad bar.
- Pantry Stocking Event – having a well-stocked pantry can encourage healthy eating and reduce the temptation to order takeout.
National Nutrition Month is exciting. It is our month as registered dietitians to shine and connect with everyone who eats – that means everyone!
"*" indicates required fields
