Eating and Nutrition

Eating well helps you to feel good. It can lower your risk of chronic diseases, such as heart disease, diabetes, certain types of cancer, and osteoporosis. It can help you have a happy pregnancy and baby, and provide the nutrients your children need to grow and develop. Eating well can also help you have more energy and support good mental health.

Northwestern Health Unit (NWHU) has Registered Dietitians who work with schools and other community partners to promote nutrition for everyone.

Dietitians in public health can answer your questions about nutrition for school and family health, food systems, and workplace wellness. Their work uses a health equity approach that focuses on advocacy, planning, and strategies to:

Create environmental and system changes to help individuals make food choices that work for them.
Build nutrition and food literacy awareness, knowledge, and skills.
Build food security in communities.
Reduce weight bias (negative attitudes and beliefs about people based on their weight).
Promote a joyful relationship with food, mind, and body.

Northwestern Health Unit (NWHU) offers many programs to support individuals, families, and communities to improve their food knowledge, cooking ability, and overall confidence in food skills.

You can contact your local health unit office for more information on program availability in your community.

What we do

Some of our services include:

Food education and skill-building programs
You’re the Chef (YTC)

Food education and skill-building programs

We work with schools and community partners to provide opportunities for education on a variety of food and nutrition topics. Registered Dietitians or other trained staff can deliver these sessions. Education sessions may also include hands-on skill-building activities such as cooking activities, food demonstrations, and label reading. We offer a signature cooking program for children and youth called You’re the Chef; check out the You’re the Chef (YTC) tab for more information.

We also work with community partners in planning, funding, and building community gardens to help increase access to vegetables, build food skills, and increase opportunities for physical activity and social connection for gardeners.

If you are looking for personal food and nutrition advice, please see our Find a Dietitian in Northwestern Ontario page.

You’re the Chef (YTC)

You’re the Chef (YTC) is a fun and easy way to teach cooking skills to children and youth (grades 5 and up). YTC participants will learn safe food handling and basic kitchen safety, develop new cooking skills and confidence in preparing foods, and learn new, tasty recipes along the way! YTC consists of four fun-filled sessions: one orientation session and three themed cooking sessions. The program is adapted from York Region Public Health and is a “train the trainer” model.

Anyone can become a YTC Leader and start running the YTC program in your school or community!

To become a YTC Leader, you must attend a two-hour virtual training session with an NWHU Registered Dietitian. We offer virtual training sessions throughout the year. To sign up for the next available date, email nutrition@nwhu.on.ca. After being trained, NWHU will provide YTC Leaders with access to the resources needed to run the YTC program successfully. It is recommended to have your Safe Food Handler Certification.

About the program

You need at least one trained YTC leader to organize the program, with other volunteers to help. Please note the ratio of facilitators to participants is 1:4. The more facilitators that are trained, the easier it is to run the program!
You need a room with two sinks, tables, access to a refrigerator, and basic kitchen equipment. No stove is required for recipe preparation (electric skillets are used for cooking).
You need funding to cover the cost of food. Recipes were selected to develop basic cooking skills and use basic equipment. The cost of preparing recipes for each session is approximately $30-$40 for 10 participants to taste the recipes.
One or two recipes are prepared during each session and can be prepared in ~one hour (room set-up and clean-up will take additional time).
All recipes include either a vegetable or fruit and many include a plant-based protein.
A leader manual, participant manuals, and a complete list of kitchen equipment, recipes, and activities to facilitate the program are available on the YTC Leader Site.

YTC leader information

What will I do as a YTC Leader?

Understand and interpret the information in the YTC Leader training
Confirm a location, equipment, and budget to purchase food for the recipes
Recruit participants (and volunteers) from your school or community group
Review the YTC Leader site resources and information to plan sessions
Before and after sessions, clean and sanitize the room being used for sessions
Lead the orientation session and three themed sessions of YTC!
Accurately communicate the information provided in the training and Leader Manual
Remember, you are an adult influencer! Support participants to explore foods and have fun!

Questions?

Please contact us at nutrition@nwhu.on.ca

Sign In to the YTC Leader Site

Once you’re trained as a YTC Leader, you’ll receive access to all of the materials and recipes to support the program. Access the YTC Leader Site here.