Nourish to Flourish - Positive Relationships with Food
March is Nutrition Month and the theme for 2026 is Nourish to Flourish. What this means will be slightly different for everyone, but is all about the broad role food plays in our lives, going beyond simply meeting our physical needs. It’s about exploring the social, cultural and emotional side of food.
This Nutrition Month, we’re focusing on how we can build positive, supportive relationships with food - for ourselves and for others. A positive relationship with food is about letting go of guilt and rigid rules, and learning to listen to our bodies with curiosity and compassion.
There are many ways to nurture this relationship, from practicing kinder self-talk to creating environments where people feel safe to openly discuss and explore food. Below, you’ll find resources to help you learn more, along with practical ideas to support your own relationship with food.
- Ideas for Families
-
- Check off as many activities as you can throughout the month of March on the Nourish to Flourish ideas checklist.
- Read a story about food or body diversity. Check out these lists for ideas:
- Grow some edible plants in your windowsills with this Beginners Guide.
- Have a picnic meal or snack – lay out blankets on the floor, turn off the lights, put on a video of a crackling campfire or a sunny day with bird songs.
- Watch the Traditional Food Harvest video and colour pages from the colouring book.
- Try out some Mealtime Conversation Starter questions at your family meals throughout the month.
- Involve children in helping to prepare a meal or snack. Here are some ideas of kid friendly kitchen tasks and meal ideas:
- Read through these tips to help your child develop a positive relationship with food and their body.
- Ideas for Child Care Centres
-
- Ask families to bring in a family recipe and make a cookbook for the centre.
- Work with your centre’s cook to feature some of these recipes throughout the month on the menu.
- Share the cookbook with families at your centre.
- Learn about traditional food harvesting to share this knowledge with the children at your centre.
- Colour pages from the Foods of the 13 Moons colouring book.
- Read a story about food or body diversity. Check out these lists for ideas.
- Involve the children in helping to prepare a snack for themselves. Here are some ideas of kid friendly kitchen tasks:
- Try out some Mealtime Conversation Starter questions at meals and snacks throughout the month.
- Grow some edible plants in your windowsills with this Beginners Guide.
- Learn about how to support children to develop a positive relationship with their bodies.
- Have a picnic snack – bring blankets to sit on the floor, turn off the lights, put on a video or sounds of a crackling campfire or a sunny day with bird songs.
- Check off as many activities as you can throughout the month of March on the Nourish to Flourish ideas checklist.
- Child care centre staff – check out the workplaces tab below for more ideas.
- Ask families to bring in a family recipe and make a cookbook for the centre.
- Ideas for Schools
-
- Incorporate the concepts, curriculum supports and school food climate resources from Bright Bites into the school and classroom.
- Keep snack and lunch times calm while students eat - turn off the lights; put on soft music, the sounds of a crackling campfire or bird songs. Encourage students to chat quietly amongst themselves while they enjoy their food.
- Share the Tips for Adult Lunchroom Monitors resource with those who supervise meal times.
- Encourage connection over food by posting the daily Mealtime Conversation Starter question on the board at snack/lunch break.
- Use your Northern Fruit and Vegetable Program produce to make a shared snack. Take a look at this handout for some ideas.
- Watch the Traditional Food Harvest video and colour pages from the colouring book.
- Have a food sharing day, such Fruity Friday or Class Culture Day and invite students to bring in an item to share.
- Ask students to bring in a family recipe and make a class cookbook.
- Read a story about food or body diversity. Check out these lists for ideas.
- Grow some edible plants in your windowsills with this Beginners Guide.
- Incorporate some of the activities from the Nourish to Flourish ideas checklist.
- Teachers – sign up for the Teacher Tid-Bites E-Bulletin.
- School staff – check out the workplaces tab below for more ideas.
- Ideas for Workplaces
-
- Check off as many activities as you can throughout the month of March on the Nourish to Flourish ideas checklist.
- Host a potluck lunch with co-workers.
- Plan a collaborative lunch, where everyone who participates contributes an ingredient to make a delicious soup, salad or nourish bowl. Find a recipe book and sign-up sheets below:
- Take a cooking class together.
- Commit to avoiding any diet talk.
- Review more information on being positive, comfortable and flexible with eating to build your eating competence.
- Have a lunch time screening of the Understanding Our Food Systems Traditional Food Harvest video.
- Go out for a team lunch or dinner.
- Grow some edible plants in your office windowsills with this Beginners Guide.
- Learn about the role nutrition has in connection to our mental health.
- Recipe Sharing Activity
- Ask staff to share a recipe that has meaning to them – this might be a family recipe that has been passed down for generations, or a recipe that reminds them of home, or maybe it’s a simple comfort food is made on cold winter days.
- Compile the recipes, with a short description of why it was chosen and share the recipe book amongst staff.
- You could also plan to host a potluck, where staff prepare their meaningful recipe to share with colleagues.
- Mealtime Conversation Starters
- Post the Mealtime Conversation Starter questions in a break room or print and cut the list into slips to start up some engaging and lively table discussions.
- Place them in a bowl or box and invite staff to take a slip to try out at home or on break.
- Put out some blank slips and pens for people to leave their own ideas of conversation starters.
- Make & Take Coffee Break Snack
- If you have a small budget, or if folks want to contribute a dollar or two, purchase a few ingredients for people to make their own nourishing snack at break time.
- Things that work well are parfaits (yogurt, fruit & granola), smoothies (banana, yogurt, frozen fruit & milk), mini wrap roll-ups (hummus, vegetables & cheese, or pizza sauce, spinach & cheese), cheesy cucumber crunch (cheese, crackers & cucumber slices), trail mix (nuts, seeds, whole grain cereal, dried fruit).
- Consider allergies when planning
- Charcuterie Break
- Set a date and time, and invite colleagues to bring an item to contribute to a group charcuterie board to share.
- Food ideas could be cheeses, crackers, fruits, vegetables, dips, pita triangles, pickles, olives, dried fruits, nuts (if no allergies), jams, spreads, baguette.
- Use this as an opportunity to connect with and get to know colleagues better!
- Review Canada's Food Guide - Healthy Eating at Work.
Further Information
Nourish to Flourish Ideas Checklist
Mealtime Conversation Starters
For more information about Nutrition Month 2026, contact Danielle by email or phone at 807-625-8813.
For information about nutrition programs at TBDHU, please call 807-625-5900 or toll-free 1-888-294-6630.
If you are looking for nutrition counselling or have a question about food or eating, visit the Health Connect Ontario website or call 811.