Adults hear from advertisers, doctors, influencers, and others, that one of the keys to a healthier life is eating fruits and vegetables. But anyone who has had responsibility for a young child knows that getting them to eat well can be a challenge. In fact, 9 out of 10 U.S. kids don’t eat the recommended daily servings of vegetables. Studies have shown, though, that kids who are introduced to fresh produce at an early age are more likely to maintain healthy eating habits throughout their lives. And for kids, healthy eating impacts so many other parts of their lives, from general health to having energy enough to play and learn.
To help teachers and others who work with young children introduce their charges to delicious produce, Small Bites Adventure Club has developed a standards-based curriculum around preparing healthy snacks in classrooms and afterschool programs. The Partnership for Inclusive Innovation (PIN), housed at Georgia Tech’s Enterprise Innovation Institute, has supported Small Bites since June 2023 with funding and PIN Summer Interns. It is an important example of ways technology can be used to have a positive impact on the health of children.
“Many communities across the state don’t have consistent access to pediatric care or fresh foods, and so the idea is what tech enabled preventative measures can we support?” said Jamal Lewis, PIN’s economic opportunity manager, explaining why this project fits with PIN’s mission of innovation for all. “Developing a digital platform that expands access to hands on food education and healthy eating habits is a strong solution.”
Erin Croom, Small Bites’ CEO, co-founded the company in 2018 after years of working with other organizations, including Georgia Organics, on farm-to-school programming. Her background led her to believe it was possible to provide turn-key solutions for teachers to help children prepare, eat, and love fruits and vegetables.
“We thought of it like HelloFresh for food education,” Croom said. “A teacher could open the box and lead a hands-on cooking recipe. Kids could learn about tomatoes and cucumbers, other vegetables. Teachers could have fun. Kids could have fun. Kids would leave inspired to be more adventurous eaters and go home to tell their families about it.”
PIN became involved with Small Bites with grant funding to help the company develop an online platform where teachers could find the information needed to teach the different lessons. This was an opportunity to grow the program and reach more teachers and children.
“PIN was a big part of our strategy to rapidly expand,” Croom said. “Where we differentiate from other nutrition education programs is that we’re scalable. We don’t go in and teach. We ship everything out to teachers. We really focus on, how do we arm the front lines, the teachers, with the materials that they need to lead high quality food education that is really going to move the needle on how kids learn about fruits and vegetables.”
Since PIN became involved, Small Bites has expanded the technology piece of its model and created Veggie Ready, a five-month project kit that connects directly to learning standards and provides four recipes, stickers, and family resources.
“Our vision for Veggie Ready is to provide young children opportunities to explore new vegetables before they even reach first grade,” said Croom. “If we expect children to have foundational skills in literacy and math by age six, shouldn’t we also equip them with the skills to make simple, yummy, and healthy snacks? These are foundational experiences that will last a lifetime.”
Veggie Ready also includes an easy-to-use digital platform and course guides for teachers.
“They can find videos of farmers, step-by-step instructions on how to lead these lessons,” Croom said. “It is accompanied by actual physical materials that we ship. I think our program reflects the reality of teachers and what they need. They still need those hard copies of information that they’re handing out to students. It’s a hybrid kind of tech.”
During the years PIN supported the project, Small Bites reached 707 sites; more than 1,100 teachers; and 68,296 students, primarily in Georgia. In 2025, the project plans to expand into Alabama, Louisiana, and Oklahoma.
“PIN helped us build the infrastructure for this,” Croom said. “We were trying to figure out how to create a scalable, high-quality nutrition education program that any teacher could do. What PIN allowed us to do was focus on some tech tools, as well as high-quality videos that teachers could use. It also gave us the opportunity to look at the state and see how we can rapidly expand, thoughtfully.”
As Croom and Lewis both see it, this is a win-win project. Kids have fun and learn new skills and healthy habits. And teachers get a creative project they can do easily with their students.
“I think the piece that goes unnoticed or forgotten about this project is while it does provide that opportunity for kids and for their families to get the recipes and create healthy eating habits early, the teachers have been invested in it as well,” Lewis said. “They’re getting this curriculum. I’m a really big advocate for investing in teachers, so is this a really solid project and company that Erin has created.”