Food ABCs

For many kids, it’s “Yum!” when they like something and “Yuck!” when they don’t. Of course there’s more to it than that, but as a vocabulary it can be very limited and often leaves a gulf between what adults think of as “good food” and what kids do. How often have we as parents tried in vain to convince our kids they should eat something and struggled to convey it in “their language”? It took years for many of us to discover the joys of weird-looking vegetables, varieties of fish, and things you dig up from the ground. The way we’re going, it’s going to take even longer for our kids, if they discover them at all.

Unhealthy Food Looks Fun, But Good Food Should Be Funner!
Then of course there are the things our kids have no problem eating: the burgers, the chicken nuggets, sodas and snack foods. Our kids may think that’s because they taste better, but without that multi-billion dollar industry to create the images, songs, cartoon characters, toys, tie-ins and colorful packaging that goes with them, they might think otherwise. Or maybe if the other food, the “real” food, had that kind of buzz behind it, they might be more willing to give it a shot.

One thing that contributes to our genuine enjoyment of good food is participation. As adults, we’re the ones who partake of the adventure of food, whether it’s discovering and choosing it in markets, or creating small and large masterpieces in the kitchen. We know that kids who do participate are much more willing to try different things. Of course cooking is also work, and while not a job most of us expect our kids to take on, it is a great opportunity to engage them in something truly fun and magical, which is why we created DooF.

What DooF Offers
DooF offers an array of different ways for kids to engage with, to be educated and entertained by, the story of food. DooF’s Food ABCs includes curriculum materials, videos and interactive media designed to help kids create their own vocabulary around food and participate in the process. We’re here to create a few images, songs, cartoon characters, toys, tie-ins and colorful packaging of our own — only instead of featuring junk food, our fun adventure stars a carrot, an orange, and a million other players, each with a wonderful story to tell. It stars aliens from a planet that doesn’t have food, and the farmers, chefs and regular folks who are passionate in their appreciation for the incredible resource we have. Most of all, it stars kids discovering food for themselves!

Picture your kid at the kitchen table playing a computer game involving a bunch of aliens, he jumps up from the table and tells you that the first recorded soup was made from a hippopotamus in 6000 BC, that Worcestershire sauce is made from dissolved fish, and by the way I found a recipe for dinner from the ingredients we have in our kitchen. Picture that sense of discovery taking place in kitchens and schools and markets all over the country. That’s our vision for DooF. The beginning of it, anyway.

Learn about the DooF Food Literacy Curriculum