Celebrate Green Blog

by Lynn

Less than a month ago, Michelle Obama teamed up with Walmart (a pairing that has raised more than a few eyebrows), to push her personal first lady agenda, putting a stop to the obesity epidemic in kids.

Walmart plans, they say, to make fruits and vegetables less expensive. Once they are, the theory goes, more parents will buy, more children will eat and American kids’ body weights will return to normal.

We sure hope that happens, especially with organics. Healthy people, healthy planet our thinking goes.

But even when fruits and veggies are less expensive, parents sometimes have a problem getting kids to eat them.

Enter Today I Ate a Rainbow.

Today I Ate A Rainbow!™ is a chart and more, invented by mom Kia Robertson, who was looking for a way to track her daughters’ 5-a-day fruits and veggies even when life got hectic. She also wanted her child to participate and take responsibility for her food choices in a fun and interactive way.

Kia’s chart turned into a business built around helping kids and parents ensure the family is eating well.

She’s put together a kid-friendly package that with parents’ help, should engage young children in making better choices.

A complete kit retails for $25 and contains:
• 1 Today I Ate A Rainbow!™ chart
• 4 sets of colored magnets
• 4 achievement magnets
• 2 fridge magnets
• 1 color-coded shopping list
• The Rainbow Bunch book
• Rainbow bookmark

I tested it out on Corey’s younger daughter. Now you need to know that Corey’s kids maybe a bit unusual because they love veggies and most all healthy foods.

When the older lost her first tooth she called to invite me out to a celebratory dinner. “And guess what I get to have,” she exclaimed, “fish and broccoli!” No kidding!

Anyway, her younger sister was enchanted by the idea of Today I ate a Rainbow. She listened intently to the book and we talked about all the different vegetables by color, she proclaiming, “well, this wouldn’t be hard for me. I love all of them! But blueberries are my favorite!”

Since the family is temporarily staying at our house, we put the chart up and she happily added the magnets, and said to me, “I think this would really help children who aren’t so enthusiastic about fruits and vegetables as we are!”

I think she’s right.

Finn also liked the idea of the included shopping lists, color-coded for fruits and veggies. She thought that helping mom write the list would be fun.

Another fun idea if your children have a play kitchen, would be to make or buy a rainbow of fruits and veggies and play Today I Ate a Rainbow with them.

Our one caveat, we’d love to see more eco-friendly materials in the Today I Ate a Rainbow kit. While packaging is recyclable, and everything is printed with veggie ink, it would be terrific to see printing done on 100% PCW paper.

Meantime, if your kids aren’t as enthusiastic about fruits and veggies as our grandkids, check out Today I Ate a Rainbow and they just may change their minds.

Note: We received a free Today I Ate a Rainbow kit to try. For information about our review process please see our Disclosure Policy.

Lynn Colwell and Corey Colwell-Lipson are mother and daughter and authors of Celebrate Green! Creating Eco-Savvy Holidays, Celebrations and Traditions for the Whole Family, and founders of Green Halloween®.