Conference Keynotes and Professional Trainings

A Crash Course in Creativity: How to Make Nutrition Come Alive!

Barbara has created this special Creativity Training to help students and educators be more effective communicators and bring creativity into the fields of health and nutrition! 

Learn how to be a dynamic, inspiring, and memorable speaker, whether you’re presenting for a class of pre-schoolers or an auditorium filled with hundreds of  health professionals! Help students and educators harness their true passions and use creativity to enhance their effectiveness – in teaching, counseling, public speaking, leading, and coaching. 

Through hands-on learning and dynamic activities, participants will learn effective strategies from the creative arts to deeply engage, motivate, and inspire children and adults to improve health habits. They’ll learn how to translate scientific concepts in a way that connects with their audience and helps motivate behavior change. 

Bringing best practices from theater, improvisation, puppetry, storytelling, circus arts, and public speaking, participants will discover a new set of tools to communicate food, nutrition, and health information in a fun-filled, non-threatening way. And, with so much on their plates, they’ll even learn how to juggle! Let Barbara help you think outside the box and INNOVATE!

Options Include: One Session, Half-Day, Full-Day, and Residencies 

The World of Virtual - How to Create Engaging Virtual Presentations

In this session, we’ll share practical tips, hands-on strategies, and best practices to help you actively engage and motivate your audiences online to improve health habits while having fun in the process!

We’ve learned a lot these past years – and happy to say that we’ve discovered a whole new set of strategies to make nutrition come alive – Virtually! We’ve been working hard to convert our national touring FoodPlay theater shows into engaging livestream presentations and have been rewarded with highly enthusiastic responses from children, teachers, and administrators!  

In this session, we’ll showcase the best practices we’ve found to help educators actively engage their audiences and make virtual programming more effective and interactive for children and families whether at home, in school, or in community settings. Participants will learn how to to create highly engaging virtual and distance learning programming that can be successfully implemented while reaching those in need. This session will provide a breadth of expertise, problem solving strategies, creative examples, and emerging best practices that can be utilized by nutrition and health educators in a wide variety of settings working with children and families. We’ll demonstrate what works and what doesn’t work and let you, the audience decide!

There are both pros and cons to being virtual, and this session will help maximize the opportunities that livestream programming can offer us as nutrition and health educators. 

Hands-On Nutrition: Strategies to Turn Kids on to Healthy Habits!

Join Barbara as she demonstrates how to make nutrition come alive. Recipient of a host of awards, Barbara brings over 35 years of creative nutrition education and media expertise to help educators put sparkle into their programs, boost creativity, increase effectiveness, and bring fun back to their jobs. Barbara will share her 10 Strategies to Turn Kids on to Healthy Habits and demonstrate a variety of innovative approaches using theater arts and interactive media to speak to children in their language and motivate them to improve their eating and exercise habits.

Put the Spotlight on School Nutrition!

Now that you’re meeting the guidelines, how are you getting your kids to go for the healthy foods served? How can you put the spotlight on school nutrition and trigger excitement for your programs?

Join Barbara as she demonstrates how to make good eating great fun and boost excitement for your school food service programs. You don’t have to paint broccoli neon green or dress up like Elvis “Parsley” to get kids to go for the healthy foods served. But, it sure helps to put some punch in your message, excitement in your offerings, and joy in your outlook.

Barbara along with her dynamic team of FoodPlay performers deliver a dynamic and engaging presentation using theater, music, magic, juggling and audience participation to inspire and empower! They’ll present a variety of innovative approaches that food service personnel, from directors to front line staff, can use to increase school breakfast and lunch participation and get kids to go for the healthy foods served – especially fruits, veggies, and whole grains, all in a spirit of fun and celebration!

With everything on their plate, participants will learn how to juggle! With limited time, money, and resources, simple things mean a lot. Barbara will showcase a host of effective approaches that food service staff can use to create a fun and exciting lunchroom, link cafeteria with classroom learning, develop positive relationships with their customers, provide dynamic standards-based nutrition education, and build school-wide excitement for school nutrition.

Barbara brings over 35 years of creative nutrition education, marketing, and media experience to help food service staff spotlight their programs, add sparkle to their cafeteria, boost creativity, increase effectiveness, and bring some fun back to their hectic jobs.

How to Make Good Eating and Active Living…GREAT FUN!

If you’re a teacher or work in school food service – you’re already performing amazing feats of juggling! But, why not learn how to really juggle, without dropping the balls? Join Barbara as she demonstrates how to make good eating great fun – for the kids and YOU!

She’ll share dozens of fun and exciting ways to make nutrition come alive in the classroom and cafeteria. Help market your healthy food offerings, making fruits, veggies, and whole grains, the go-to choice for kids, increase school breakfast and lunch participation, and put the spotlight on school nutrition. Barbara will showcase dynamic activities and lesson plans to help educators integrate nutrition into core subject areas and meet the new Common Core Standards. Use a variety of approaches that speak to children in their language including puppetry, storytelling, circus arts, social media, theater, and arts integration techniques. Learn how to trigger school-wide excitement to get all stakeholders on board – kids, teachers, parents, and administrators, to support School Nutrition and work together to create effective wellness policies and healthier schools.