Food & Wellness

CentroNía’s Food and Wellness team cooks nutritious meals, educates adults and children to adopt the healthy lifestyles necessary for academic and social success, advocates for better food policies, and embeds its holistic model within communities.

Adults, especially teachers and parents, play an essential role in helping young children develop lifelong habits that promote health and wellness. With that in mind, CentroNía created the Roots education program to engage and educate parents and early childhood educators about the importance of instilling healthy behaviors early in life.

Why start young?

Children develop life-long food preferences before the age of three.
Half of obese children in the United States are already overweight by their second birthday.
Children’s relationship to food impacts their development in various areas: physical, cognitive, emotional, and social.
Adult behavior, through feeding practices, impacts the way children react to internal cues of hunger and satiation, affecting their innate ability to self-regulate. nutrition
Early childhood education centers provide the perfect platform to increase the availability and accessibility of a variety of foods, helping young children explore new tastes and textures.

NUTRITION EDUCATION

CentroNía’s Food and Wellness Roots initiative offers educators and parents the tools to cultivate healthy habits during early childhood through nutrition education within the classroom and with families, and by offering fresh produce through subsidized community-supported agriculture and market vouchers program.

ADVOCACY

Whether at a childcare center, as an entire community, or as a nation, creating a culture of healthy living is essential to the success of children and families. CentroNía advocates for improved access to healthy foods and nutrition education for early childhood programs when local and national policies are introduced or challenged.

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FOOD PRODUCTION

CentroNia’s Food & Wellness department prepares fresh, tasty, and nourishing meals. Menus follow USDA regulations and Healthy Tots Act guidelines to include a variety of fresh fruits and vegetables, whole grains, and lean proteins from local products when possible. Menus are rich in fiber and low in fat, sugar, and sodium.

NÍACENTRAL CATERING

NiaCentral, a social enterprise subsidiary of CentroNia, was created in 2016 to provide catering services to early childhood education centers and schools throughout the region.