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

What Does It Mean To Raise a Joyful Eater?

By Sonalie Figueiras

Before we can get down to the nuts and bolts of how to raise a climate-smart eater, it’s important to first think about how to raise a kid who likes to eat. As someone who grew up in a family that loves food (almost too much!), it really matters to me that my children are joyful eaters. 

“What’s a joyful eater?” I hear you asking. Simply: a child who enjoys eating, is excited by food, and is interested in trying new dishes. Eating is more than the act of putting food in your mouth. It’s the act of buying food, meal planning, preparing food, setting the table, taking the time to eat the food, and cleaning up, and mini humans ought to be exposed to all parts of the equation. 

Note: All of these thoughts below are meant to be suggestions and openings, not hard and fast rules. They come from me processing how I want to raise my kids on the topic of eating. They are not meant to cause any stress or anxiety, or hold folks up to an unreachable ideal. There are days when my kid will only eat cereal. There are days when my baby refuses all pureed veggies. It’s a journey and it’s messy. We do the best we can, and we celebrate that.

Involve your child in the process of buying food

While this may not be possible on a daily basis, taking the little ones with you on a midweek trip to your neighborhood corner shop, a weekend visit to a farmers’ market or farm, or the monthly trip to your favorite grocery store can awaken a love for the tastes, textures, sights, and sounds of food. Walking through rows of fresh produce helps kids experience seasonality, the ins and outs of our agricultural system, the realities of what it takes to fill their fridge and pantry with ingredients, and basic home economics — all important experiences when raising a happy and well-adjusted eater. 

Get your kids to participate in cooking from as early an age as possible

Start with breakfast and baking, as this is what tends to excite wee humans the most. Do Saturday morning pancake sessions or monthly cookie making—from as little as 2 or 3, kids have the ability to be helpful and engaged in the kitchen. Then graduate to things like pasta and sandwiches when they are older, say 5 or 6. From 11-12 onwards, task them with prepping veggies for sheet pan roast, or assembling salads, or making dressings/marinades (this is similar to baking in terms of measurements and mixing so they will already have practice). Aim to involve them at least once a week in contributing to a family meal by giving them responsibility. FYI: The ages mentioned are just guidelines. Some kids are excited by cooking early or have excellent hand-eye coordination as toddlers so they can do more, other kids…not so much. Follow their lead!

Create a regular habit of family sit-down meals

For some families, this will be breakfast, others dinner, and others still may only be able to commit to a weekend lunch/brunch. It’s not the frequency that matters, it’s the consistency and the quality. There is plenty of research about why sitting down together to share a meal is good for mental health, family bonds, and community building, and lots of studies show that we humans have evolved to value this deeply. In fact, there’s scientific evidence that kids who sit down and eat with their parents on the regular do better academically, have wider vocabularies, and develop healthier eating habits. Eating around a table and talking also allows kids to learn how to savor food, rather than mindlessly stuffing themselves in front of the TV, for example, which is a key part of raising a healthy eater (something we will cover in another part of this series). So: prioritize, celebrate, and take advantage of sit-down meals to create family traditions; talk about each other’s day; and share stories—it’s an important first step in appreciating food. 

Let kids choose at least one dish on restaurant menus…

…but not on the kids’ menu! I am not a fan of kids’ menus for a range of reasons, which I will explore in a separate essay. Suffice it to say, one of the ways to raise a happy eater is to get them to try new things and develop their palette, and that tends to happen when you order from the normal menu. When you’re out with the little people, go through the food menu together and explain what things are — this is especially fun when kids are learning to read (from 5-6 years onwards)— and let them pick something on their own. The idea is to expose them to new foods, tastes, textures, and colors.  Before that age (from 3 to 6 years), since they can’t read, you can choose a dish together.

I am excluding kids 2 years and under from this rule. In those early years, it’s appropriate for parents and caregivers to be choosing for them as there are specific nutritional milestones you want to be meeting and/or they still may need a certain amount of breast milk/formula. I will delve into toddler eating in another essay.

Once in a while: indulge together! 

With a growing diabesity crisis (as Dr. Mark Hyman dubs it), it’s never been more important to focus on healthy eating and lowering consumption of sugar/ultra-processed foods/deep-fried foods, but a life of extremes is not worth it. It’s OK to indulge sometimes, especially with family. Extra dessert, a visit to the ice cream truck, holiday pies, searching out the best pastry at a bakery on a family trip…give your kids happy memories of decadent, delicious eats that they will keep forever. These will be the threads that make up the fabric of their own personal food culture.

Our Favorite Reads

Curated by Sophie Egan

In every issue, we’ll share 3-5 good reads— think: the best climate-smart shopping/eating/nutrition advice and thought-provoking essays.

• “10 Tips for Bringing Climate Change Solutions into the Classroom.” My sons started kindergarten this year, so the first thing I did was have lunch with them in their cafeteria to get the lay of the land. The second thing I did was join the school’s sustainability committee. (Overachiever alert!) During the committee’s first meeting, one parent asked how we might bring more climate content into the elementary curriculum. This idea both excited and overwhelmed me, so I was thrilled to see Project Drawdown offer a new mini-guide for how to go about this. 

• “A New Holiday Ritual? Advent Book Bundles Fly Off Library Shelves.” A library membership is one of the GOAT climate-smart household habits. Turning it into a fun and festive holiday tradition that could offset less healthy, less sustainable traditions is a double win. (Bonus points for anyone who can find a library that does this with cookbooks! Let the recipe inspiration roll in…)

• “Next Dietary Guidelines Should Lead with Plant-Based Foods, Scientific Advisers Say.” Hot off the press: the much-anticipated Scientific Report of the 2025 Dietary Guidelines Advisory Committee. It’s wonderful to see such emphasis on whole, real food that mostly comes from the plant kingdom and is not only good for people but the planet. I’m also doing a happy dance at this piece: “Compared to the current guidelines, Tuesday’s report also adds a new recognition of dietary patterns that take into account cultural differences in how healthy nutrients are included in meals, with special attention to intakes of iron, folate/folic acid, iodine, and choline in pregnancy and postpartum periods.”

• “20 Children’s Books Celebrating Our Food and Farming Systems.” Just in time for any last-minute holiday gifts for the kids in your life! And curated by the one and only Food Tank. I am especially excited about some of the cookbooks for kids–I’m always on the hunt for more of those.

Tried and Tested: Kid-Friendly Holiday Recipes

We’ve got more recipes for this issue because, after all, ‘tis the season of eating and merriment. Below, latke ideas from Sonalie, a couple of sides for your holiday table, and a winning, warming one-pot family dinner plan.

• Who doesn’t love creamy, sweet, flavor-packed pumpkin butter? It’s basically a fancy name for creamed pumpkin with a little maple syrup and some spices. Serious Eats has a foolproof guide on this much-loved classic that is popular with kiddos and adults alike.

• While this is not a kid’s recipe per se, this NYT Cooking Crisp Gnocchi With Brussels Sprouts dish has proven popular with my kid and his friends. It’s easy to veganize (get egg-free gnocchis and ditch the cheese), and it’s a colorful, fun way for the little ones to eat some greens.

• If your family is tired of holiday food, Eating Well’s sweet potato and black bean chili is a great alternative—I make this every couple of months without fail and have done so for years. Perfect to cook in bulk and save for lazy winter afternoons/family dinners.

Bonus: Pantry Latkes

Around this time of the year, I start to crave latkes, and while potato and/or apples are traditional, I tend to go for sweet potato or pumpkin. I encourage you to peel and grate whatever root vegetable (swedes (aka rutabaga)/beetroot/butternut squash) you have on hand and mix with 1-2 grated peeled apples, ½ a brown/yellow onion. Season with salt and pepper and add 2 whisked eggs or equivalent egg replacer (JUST Egg works well) and season with salt and pepper. Latkes make a great appetizer, post-holiday brunch food to mop up leftovers, or a stylish side to any main meal. Deep fry, shallow pan fry or cook in your air fryer.