The D4T Story:

Dietitians 4 Teachers was the passion project of Gwen.  Gwen and a dietitian friend, Terri are neighbors, well close enough that we bump into each other at the park with our kids,  go for walks and support each other in our small businesses.  Our kids are pretty close in age.  Every September, without fail, would mark the start of diet-culture defense.  When we would run into each other we would end up sharing stories coming from our friends, our clients, and even from our own children. These stories centered around diet-focused messages being taught (directly and indirectly) about food in school.

• “I have to eat the healthy food before my treats”,
• “Dad, you can’t pack chocolate in my lunch this year, it’s unhealthy”,
• “My grade 10  kid has a semester long weight loss challenge in high school gym class”,
• “My kid has an assignment to track his food intake, in grade 2. Is that normal?”

We would find ourselves talking these situations through from our different perspectives and reminding ourselves, that teachers are amazing people, but that diet-culture was obviously alive and well in schools and impacting kids.

“How could we support teachers and kids?” 

We decided that it was time for dietitians  to start by showing up differently for educators. Showing up  (virtually – it was 2020 after all) meant listening and adding value that teachers asked for.

Dietitians4Teachers was born.

It started as an Instagram account to begin the conversation. From there, it has grown to support teachers and educators across Canada with Professional Development learning, resource/curriculum review and posters and resources for sale.

Teachers:

• You can stop diet culture from being part of your classrooms;
• You can help kids love exploring food with the same passion that you teach them to love reading; and
• You can help kids have positive relationships with food, that will in turn, lead them to health.

I am here to walk beside you.

Let’s start.

Gwen – Dietitians4Teachers