research poster »
Purchase once, use for a lifetime
learn about our special packages for feeding therapists » shop all packages for classrooms and feeding therapists »Bring Dr. Yum to Your Community
Dr. Yum’s Food Adventure works with a wide range of schools and partner organizations to help children, teachers, feeding therapists, and families learn to make friends with new fruits and veggies , changing attitudes and behaviors around new foods!. We’ve had great results with all types of early childcare settings, school districts, Head Start organizations, YMCA programs, speech-language pathology and occupational therapy offices, hospitals, Food Banks, and more.
To become one of our partners and bring Dr. Yum’s Food Adventure to your community, just follow the four steps below. Our team is ready to assist you, so please don't hesitate to get in touch!
Join an info Session » or Send us an email »frequently asked questions
Why Education on Healthy Eating is Important
Childhood Obesity is an epidemic affecting children of all ages. But poor nutrition doesn’t only appear as excess body weight. A poor diet can contribute to problems like chronic constipation, gastrointestinal reflux, urinary tract infections, bedwetting, difficulty paying attention, anxiety and fatigue.
Feeding disorders are also increasingly more prevalent in young children. Feeding disorders can range from picky eating to more severe issues requiring specialized therapy. Often parents are not sure how to overcome picky eating in toddlers and preschoolers. Children can easily fall into eating the usual “kid-friendly foods” which are low in nutrients, but high in fat, salt, and sugar.
But what if there is a better way? What if we can introduce preschoolers to the delicious flavors and health benefits of fresh fruits and vegetables and get them excited about preparing foods themselves in the classroom? What if that excited preschooler takes their new knowledge and skills home, encouraging his or her family to try new foods and cook together?
How It Works
Dr. Yum’s Food Adventure is an evidence based interactive curriculum designed to introduce children to the joy of eating fruits and vegetables. This curriculum was written by Nimali Fernando, MD, MPH, (“Dr. Yum”) a pediatrician and founder of the nonprofit The Dr. Yum Project, and Melanie Potock, MA, CCC-SLP (“Coach Mel”), a certified speech language pathologist specialized in pediatric feeding, and owner of My Munch Bug. Dr. Yum and Coach Mel are also co-authors of the award-winning book, Raising a Healthy, Happy Eater: A Parent’s Handbook.
This 8th edition of our proven interactive curriculum features 24 lessons (which can be used over two years) presented by preschool teachers once a month. Using the fun characters, Dr. Yum, Coach Mel and Munch Bug, each lesson introduces a seasonal fruit or vegetable, explains their nutritional benefits to preschoolers, and guides them through a mindful appreciation of the new food using all of the senses. Many extension activities, which meet NAEYC standards, can be used to deepen the experience and familiarity with the new food through art, literacy, movement, music, science and community connections. Lastly, children work together with a few basic kitchen tools to prepare a simple snack using the featured fruit or vegetable. Kids practice motor skills like pouring and cutting while continuing to practice cognitive skills like mathematics and language. Instructors are provided materials with helpful tips and ideas on how to use encouraging language and engage kids in enjoying healthy foods. Coach Mel also includes valuable information on overcoming some of the challenges presented by selective eaters, with fun ideas that can be applied to all types of children. Parents are also given a variety of materials and information about the program so they can continue the joyful approach to healthy eating in the home.



Why it works
This one-of-a-kind curriculum works because it was written by a pediatrician and a pediatric feeding therapist who understand how preschoolers become picky eaters and how to prevent picky eating with a joyful approach. Rounding out the creative team are seasoned preschool teachers and registered dietitian, making sure kids learn nutrition in the most fun and engaging ways. Parent involvement is a key to success so a parent handbook, monthly feedback sheets with recipes and a monthly newsletter give parents the language and approach to continue the education at home. The curriculum is designed for kids of all abilities, and in particular, has shown impressive results in classrooms which include children with special needs.
Research & Impact
Dr. Nancy Zucker, director of the Center for Eating Disorders at Duke University, teamed up with the Dr. Yum Project to study the effect of this program on attitudes and behaviors around healthy eating at home and at school. Parents and teachers were surveyed about individual students’ eating behaviors before and after the curriculum. The parents showed an increase in understanding the importance of cooking with children, as well as a significantly higher appreciation of introducing plain water as a preferred drink. But that’s just the results of the parent surveys.
In the United States, 64 percent of preschoolers are cared for weekly by someone other than their parents or primary caregivers, so it was important to determine if teachers noticed changes in their students’ eating behaviors as a result of the curriculum. Our teachers evaluated roughly 400 students and were asked the following nine questions, in pre and post surveys, about the feeding behaviors of each child:
- My student loves food.
- My student is interested in food.
- My student refuses to eat food at first.
- My student enjoys tasting new foods.
- My student enjoys a wide variety of foods.
- My student looks forward to mealtimes.
- My student enjoys eating.
- My student enjoys tasting new foods that he/she hasn’t eaten before.
- My student decides that she/he doesn’t like a food, even without tasting it.
Results showed that after nine Dr. Yum Food Adventure lessons, students showed significant improvement in ALL nine areas. These findings were presented at the American Academy of Pediatrics National Meeting in Orlando and at the American Speech Language Hearing National Convention in Boston.
In 2021-22 we studied 614 children in North Alabama to see if they had similar changes in feeding behaviors and if there were any changes in BMI between the beginning of the school year and after one academic year which included teacher training and monthly Dr. Yum Food Adventures. We stratified the children into healthy weight, high weight and low weight.

BMI change in these three groups after an average of 7 lessons was as follows:
- Compared to children with a healthy weight (n= 437), those with high weight (BMI percentile above the 85th; n=130) lost 16.9 percentile points over the year (p < .001)
- Conversely, children with low weight (below the 5th percentile; n=47) gained 24.7 percentile points over the course of the school year (p < .001).

Among the 130 with high weight at baseline, 44 had healthy weight at the end of the year (33.8%)

Among the 47 with low weight at baseline, 27 had healthy weight at the end of the year (57.4%)

These results highlight the possibility that a school-based cooking intervention could be an effective prevention strategy for the development of both high and low-weight. Exposure to novel fruits and vegetables may promote positive attitudes toward food and improvement in weight status. However, additional data are required to more fully understand the mechanisms that cause beneficial weight changes in preschool-age children. Our results will be published in the Health Nutrition Journal in 2025.