Nutrition Education Programs and Resources

The Health Department provides nutrition education programming for the public and supports organizations that want to offer nutrition education to employees or clients through a variety of resources.


The Stellar Farmers Markets Program

The Just Say Yes to Fruits and Vegetables Stellar Farmers Markets program provides free bilingual nutrition education workshops and cooking demonstrations at select farmers markets throughout NYC from July to November. The program builds participants' knowledge and skills about how and why to prepare healthy meals using fresh, seasonal produce. Workshops are open to the public and are provided in multiple languages. All participants aged 18 years and older will receive a $2 Health Bucks coupon for attending.

Check out the Eat Healthy Be Active Facebook page for information about weekly workshops from July to November as well as tips about locally grown produce.

To schedule a group visit for your organization’s clients, email NutritionEducation@health.nyc.gov.


Recipes and Handouts for Adults

Use the following recipes in your education workshops or provide as a resource on their own. Each recipe highlights local produce available at farmers markets, farm stands and food boxes in NYC. They are arranged in alphabetical order by main ingredient.

Use the following handouts in your education workshops or provide as a resource on their own

Both the Just Say Yes Stellar Farmers Market Program Recipes and Handouts for Adult Workshops should be used in the Interactive Food and Nutrition Workshops below.

Print promotional materials including these healthy eating posters and palm cards:

For more recipes, posters, palm cards, and links to videos visit the Nutrition Tips page.


Food and Nutrition Lessons

Interactive Food and Nutrition Workshops

Choose one of the following curricula to implement a nutrition education program at your organization.

Workshops for Adults

These curricula aim to build nutrition and culinary knowledge and skills for adults. Lessons are interactive, including a nutrition discussion, culinary demonstration and recipe tasting.

  • Just Say Yes Stellar Farmers Markets Lessons (PDF): This curriculum focuses on meal planning, budgeting, food safety, portion sizes, healthy beverages, food labels and preparation and storage of local seasonal produce. Each lesson takes about 40 minutes, including interpretation.

  • Cook Fresh at Farmers Markets Lessons (PDF): This curriculum is for shorter workshops focused on the culinary demonstration. Each lesson takes 25 minutes, including interpretation.

When teaching either of the above curricula, use recipes and handouts found above under Recipes and Handouts for Adults.

Workshops for Kids

This curriculum encourages children ages 3 to 11 to eat more fruits and vegetables by engaging them in hands-on activities. During these 25-minute lessons, children explore different kinds of produce and taste featured recipes.

Healthy Eating Workshop Series

Organizations can use these materials to deliver workshops as "lunch and learns," worksite wellness activities or nutrition education programs for clients. Each workshop topic below includes a PowerPoint presentation and corresponding notes.

Cooking Videos

Coordinate a screening at your organization or share these cooking videos with your clients on how to prepare healthy, plant-filled recipes.


Resources to Support Farmers Market Nutrition Education Programs

Nutrition education and culinary demonstrations at farmers markets benefit shoppers and farmers. Community organizations are ideal leaders for these programs because of their experience with and knowledge of community needs.

For help planning your program, use:

Educator Training Materials

Community organizations can train educators to conduct nutrition workshops and culinary demonstrations at farmers markets or farm stands.

For more information, review the guides below and choose the training video that corresponds to the curriculum you’ll be implementing.

Culinary Demonstration Tips for Educators

Use our tips to help you prepare for culinary demonstrations. They include talking points to share with participants during workshops and information to help with the preparation of recipe samples at the market. Our tips provide substitution notes, yield and preparation tips.


Nutrition Education Resources for Child Care Centers

Child care providers and teachers play a key role in helping young children establish healthy eating and physical activity habits for a lifetime. Visit the Nutrition and Physical Activity Resources for Child Care Programs page for more information including resources to support nutrition education programming.


Additional Resources


More Information