Kids Food Festival

I volunteer for the Kids Food Fest every year, Cricket Azima, the founder does a great job at introducing children to healthy eating and wholesome food choices. Kids participate in a super cool and free scavenger hunt where they piece together a well balanced meal by collecting stamps on a paper plate, at the end of the hunt they are awarded a goodie bag filled with yummy food samples. This year, Pure Kids, an organization created by Beecher’s (think cheese) stole the show, they introduced their kid’s workshop which teaches children to be food detectives, they are taught to read labels and identify the not so healthy ingredients in day to day products and foods, empowering them to make better choices on their own. The festival takes place in scenic Bryant Park and in addition to free samples from various vendors like Jarlsberg (yummy!), Kind Bar, Cuties and others, you can purchase tickets to an array of cooking classes with participating chefs from organizations like the James Beard Foundation and Whole Foods Kids. The Kids Food Fest is one NYC’s best hidden gems!

**100^th Review**
This event was scheduled to be held in late October and then Sandy happened and they postponed it to March as the entire NY was in upheaval. Had this bookmarked on my wall calender, bb calender and my gmail calender lest I forget it. The Kids Food Festival was a weekend event focusing on educating families about making balanced food choices through fun and flavorful activities.
Was planning to sign up for the demo classes for easy peasy fun cooking for kids by some famous chefs/​authors but decided against it at the last minute. I involve my daughter in cooking every other weekend at home. Didnt think the $ 40 for a 30 minute class was justified. And besides there were ton of other things to do and eat:-)
We got there at 11 am on Saturday and the park was packed. Also there were a whole load of people surrounding ice skating rink as there was an ice hockey game in action. There were quite a few tents and each one giving away samples and freebies: —
Horizon Organic Milk and Dairy-​Chocolate Milk and Grilled Cheese Sandwich
Honest Kids –Juices and Teas
Creative Kitchen-​They had diy aprons, chef hats, etc for $ 5 and a free craft station where kids use the materials provided to create anything they like
Graham Crackers-​New Strawberry Sandwich Crackers
Light Cooking-​Trail Mixes sponsored by Whole Foods
Plum Foods:-itsy bitsy rice crackers etc
There were couple others I cant seem to remember. They were also all giving away tattos and stickers
On the stage there was a performance every half and hr. Some performances that we sat through were Karma Kids, Sprowtz, Little CLub Heads, Yo Gabba Gabba. We also sat through Josh Beckermans Foodie Magician Show. This guy is really a rock star. I hear he runs a very successful food blog too. We also witnessed Katie Workman author of mom 101 and some othere cook books in making demonstration of making tacos and edamame a fun way to involve kids in healthy eating.
Overall it was a super fun event and kudos to Cooking Light for pulling this off in a big city. It was very well organized and everything seemed to be going on as per schedule which is not often witnessed at such big events. My daughter had a swell time and the message for kids to eat healthy was definitely driven well.