Welcome to the Climate Kitchen newsletter, a new content universe for climate-curious parents.

Curated by Sonalie Figueiras

Every month, we share 3 things we love as parents/caregivers raising little humans. It can be something we’ve just discovered, something we use all the time and want to share, or something recommended to us. It can be food-related, but it doesn’t have to be. Whatever it is, it should add to/simplify/enhance your life.

1. The ABCs of Climate Solutions: Ways Humans Can Save Ourselves - I was so excited to discover this book when I received an email from the author who is an educator and school librarian; I have wondered why there aren't more ABCs of Climate (and I may be working on one of my own!). It's a really useful and fun primer for older kids (I would say this is good for 5-6 years+) about the climate crisis, and I love that it's framed as solutions—hope and action are the answer!

2. Plant-Based Cooking for Kids: A Plant-Based Family Cookbook with Over 70 Whole-Food, Plant-Based Recipes for Kids - I've been looking for a good plant-based cooking recipe book aimed at children for a while now. It's surprisingly hard to find any at all, and the few that exist are not always up my alley. My little guy just loves cooking and he really loves to follow a cookbook so this is a gamechanger for our plant-forward household.

3. Avanchy Bamboo and Silicone Baby Spoons: This is another thing that was hard to find, but I loved these spoons so much (and the matching bamboo bowls) I used them with my son years ago and now I am using them with my daughter. The brand has grown since then and there are so many more options including sporks, small spoon sizes, and stainless steel versions. Unlike many greenwashed baby brands that market reconstituted bamboo fiber which often contains toxic melamine, Avanchy works with whole bamboo pieces. All items are free of BPA and BPS, and are phthalate-free (and melamine of course).

Teaching Your Kids Where Food Comes From

By Sophie Egan

My 10-part essay series has been all about practical ways to get your kids excited about climate-smart eating. Or, to put it in superhero terms: It’s about enlisting them to heed the call to embrace delicious ways to save the planet! Most of that comes down to what foods you and your family eat. See Volumes 2, 4, 7, and 9 for details, and there’s more to come in future editions. But there’s something elemental that can also go a really long way toward achieving this goal: food education. 

Research shows that greater food literacy in kids can improve healthy eating habits (which are often also more sustainable eating habits) that extend into adulthood. The benefits range from greater knowledge about the nutritional benefits of different food groups and how they contribute to health to the ability to read food labels, from greater appreciation of food to more confidence cooking and choosing healthy, sustainable, delicious options. Greater food literacy can even decrease consumption of unhealthy foods, including ultra-processed foods. 

To be clear, education alone doesn’t tend to change behavior. Nor does it by any stretch solve all the barriers to more people eating more healthy and sustainable foods. However, it is a super important piece of the puzzle, and it can be even more effective when done in a sensory-rich, immersive way to spark taste memories and smell memories that can last well beyond the specific educational experience. 

Here are 5 practical ideas for how to teach your kids where food comes from:

1. Read books. We shared this Food Tank list of books for kids in Volume 6, as books are arguably the easiest way to impart food knowledge to your little ones. Plus, as humans, we learn through stories! I recently discovered these two books, and my boys are utterly obsessed: Where Does Broccoli Come From and Where Do Bananas Come From, both from Arielle Dani Lebovitz, creator of Kid Food Explorers.

2. Visit a farm, urban farm, or community garden, and talk to people growing food. The youngest ages are full of those wonderful “why” questions, so take advantage and let them unleash their curiosity while getting their hands dirty. 

3. Share short videos. Maybe you live in a city far away from a farm or have no clue how to get in touch with your nearest fishmonger or baker—no problem. It can be as simple as your YouTube search: Show them a video of where the oats in their Cheerios are grown, harvested, milled, and turned into little O’s. Make a game out of guessing whether different types of fruits and veggies grow on trees, bushes, vines, or underground. (Then find the quick video to solve the mystery.) A 5-minute video of a cranberry bog will boggle their minds.

4. Take the kids grocery shopping with you. I know, torture. Takes you three times as long to get everything on your list, and you wind up with impulse buys you totally didn’t want, but at least every now and then, invite them to see how it all works: big pallets of food arriving on trucks, exposure to the tremendous variety in the produce section, reading different words on packages, trying samples, understanding prices, talking to the butcher or the cheesemonger, and sparking conversation like, “What does it mean if something's not on the shelf? “Well, how did it get there in the first place…?” Want to go big and take them to a farmers’ market? Great, bonus points for sure. But even your corner store can be a classroom for this essential life skill.  

5. Leave it to the pros. Find a nonprofit in your area doing food education! There are countless organizations bringing hands-on nutrition education, garden immersion, cooking classes, and more. We shared this list of organizations in the last edition of Climate Kitchen, and I recently learned about the Charlie Cart Project, which I find particularly cool because: a) it’s in nearly every state in the U.S.; and b) they work not only in schools, as is the norm, but in libraries, food banks, and community organizations, extending the reach in case your school doesn’t have a program. 

Your Questions — Answered!

As part of the feedback we received since our launch, we got many questions from readers about climate-smart diets, so we created this monthly reader question section. Send us all your questions here.

“Dear Climate Kitchen, what is the Buy Nothing movement and should I participate in it?”

I love this question. As someone who has been a public speaker about climate issues for over a decade, when asked what the number one thing you can do for the climate as an individual, I have always replied: "Buy Less Stuff". There can be no climate action without a fundamental reset in our relationship with accumulation. This is very difficult to do in a consumerist economy but the Buy Nothing movement shows it is catching on. Basically, the movement asks adherents to stop buying new items entirely, with the exception of basic necessities like food/groceries.

Here are my Buy Nothing goals:

• Commit to one month to start. This will help you not feel overwhelmed. Think of it as a short-term challenge and see how it goes. If you like it, you can always extend it.

• You are allowed to replace must-have items if you need to, like underwear.

• While you can buy food/basic groceries, here are some Climate Kitchen variations to make the challenge even more meaningful and use it as a way to quit plastic/toxins/excess packaging: 1) Aim for plant-rich foods at the grocery store/at restaurants. 2) BYOC - bring your own bottle, containers, and utensils when getting takeout/groceries. 3) Opt for refill/bulk stores for groceries and consciously limit the packaging you are purchasing.

• Use Buy Nothing/Freecycle community groups to dispose of stuff you don't need and to get things you do need in exchange.

Of all the viral social media movements out there, the Buy Nothing challenge is one of the more positive ones. I definitely recommend trying it out. Here are some ways it can improve your life:

• Save money: This is the main reason the Buy Nothing trend has taken off across social media, especially in the U.S., where consumer goods inflation and household debt (especially the credit card variety) are high.

• Experiences over stuff: This challenge is a great way to reframe gifting in your mind; learn to appreciate time spent with loved ones instead of money spent on loved ones.

• Quit consumerism: It's hard to avoid the buy-lots-of-stuff ethos that permeates our society. Spending a month not buying anything helps us re-evaluate our relationship with consumerism. It means spending less time scrolling on Amazon, less time at shopping malls, and less time in the buy-buy-buy mental mode that our materialist economy demands. All this means so much physical time saved and mental attention diverted elsewhere, like towards self-care and time spent with loved ones and hobbies.

-Sonalie Figueiras