Hi everyone! My name is Dani and I am a Registered Dietitian Nutritionist.
My passion is teaching kids about food and encouraging them to try new things. My mission is to educate through experience-based learning that combines information about nutrition, agriculture, and cooking with fun activities and experiments.
Go Bananas!
I am self-publishing the first book in a series of nutrition books for children called Where Do Bananas Come From? A Book of Fruits.
More than just your typical children’s book, Bananas includes information on 52 different fruits (one for each week of the year!) with photographs, fun facts, and activities that are accessible to children of all ages. It is a 242 page, full-color, hardback book that is an excellent reference and attractive enough to earn a spot on your coffee table.
This book is not just about nutrition. It introduces children to all kinds of fruit in different and entertaining ways to inspire them to experience new food. Through the book, kids are encouraged to try new things, become less picky eaters, and have fun in the process.
March is National Nutrition Month. Supporting this book will help promote healthy nutrition year-round.
The book illustrations are a combination of photography, water color, and digital illustration.
Photography is important for this book. I want the fruit to be easily identifiable at markets across the globe.
The digital illustrations make fruit fun and is another way to connect with our young readers. The water color on each fruit character page is a way to bring in gorgeous color and texture to make this a book a colorful and engaging read.
Children will learn how fruit is grown
The different types of fruit (Simple, Aggregate, and Multiple Fruits)
Where fruit originates from
Good for my body nutrients so children learn why they should eat a variety of fruits
How to use their 5 senses and learn to articulate what they like and don’t like about a fruit with the help of the descriptive words throughout the book
There is a list with all the descriptive words in one place for easy reference
When each fruit is in season
How to pick, store, and enjoy it so you can experiment with the fruit when it tastes best
And a glossary to help children learn and remember new words from the book such as bacteria and translucent
The book is designed for the whole family to use and learn together. Children as young as 4 years of age will be captivated by the fun fruit characters and older children will love the fun facts, experiments, and information to help select fruit at the market. The book can be read in many different ways so children and families will enjoy this book for years to come.
Learning about unique characteristics connects us with food and inspires us to try new things. The title of this book, as well as the other books in the series, include question marks for several reasons. The books answer questions including where fruit originates from in the world as well as how our food is grown. Did you know that cherries grow on trees, raspberries are grown on a prickly, fruit bearing bush, and banana plants are a giant herbaceous fruit bearing plant? Me neither, until I wrote this book.
This first book in the series focuses on fruits. Subsequent books will use the same format to focus on different whole foods such as vegetables, grains, legumes, nuts, seeds, oils, animal proteins, milks, and herbs and spices.
This series celebrate foods, teaches more about what we eat, and helps expand palates beyond our daily experience.
I’m Dani and I Like to Eat!
I always tell people I got into nutrition not because I wanted to learn how to eat healthy, but I really just wanted to eat! Seriously, the food labs I was required to take in school are awesome. I learned how to prepare one recipe many different ways to meet dietary needs for diverse populations.
In addition to my work experience counseling and educating a variety of populations about nutrition I have a master’s degree in Health Communication. I also have two specialty nutrition credentials: one in sports nutrition and one in diabetes education.
My passion has always been working with kids. I love teaching children about food and nutrition because it is fun to share new experiences, and who doesn’t love to eat? Working with children is so important to me because of the impact nutrition has on our daily lives and future health.
My mission is to create experience-based learning that combines nutrition, agriculture, and culinary education to teach kids about food and encourage them to try new things.
I have four goals:
- Introduce children to the wide diversity of whole foods and expand consumption beyond their daily experience
- Inspire kids to try new foods because they taste good and benefit their growing bodies
- Decrease the number of picky eaters by providing tools such as using the five senses and increasing vocabulary through descriptive words so children can articulate what they like and do not like about foods
- Decrease chronic disease to build a healthier future
A Fruity Beginning…
The idea for this book series came to me in 2011 on a pineapple farm in Belize. At the time I could tell you how to pick the perfect pineapple and the benefits of eating them, but I had never seen how they were grown. That day I learned that each pineapple plant only produces one pineapple per year and may only produce 1 to 3 pineapples in the entire lifetime of the plant. I realized then that I wanted to learn more about food and share that knowledge with today’s youth.
I completed the first draft of this book in 2013 and began my search for a publisher and literary agent. This was a challenge for two reasons: First, this book series doesn’t fit into a traditional children’s book category. Most children’s books, even educational books, are limited to cute stories and characters. While this book includes fun fruit characters, it also focuses on increasing knowledge and experiencing new foods without a fictional narrative. The second challenge is that book publishers want to work with people who are already famous or have a large following. Up until now those categories do not apply to me. Your support for this Kickstarter can help change that!
By the end of 2015 I decided to self-publish because I want to get these books out into the world. In January 2016 I began looking for an illustrator to bring my concept of mixing media (illustration and photography) for a children’s book to life. This is when I met the extraordinarily talented Mary Navarro. Seriously, this book only begins to showcase this woman’s incredible talent. You should see her fruit papercuts and play dough characters.
So, this brings us to 2017. The first book in the series is complete and now it’s time to print it and get it into the hands of children and families all over the world.
We are eager for you to receive this book and start work on the next book in the series: Where Does Broccoli Come From? A Book of Vegetables, but one book at a time!
A Taste of Kickstarter
Since finding a publisher and literary agent wasn’t happening, I began saving all the money I could to bring the first book in this series to life. Self-publishing is expensive. Crowdfunding is a way for me to help pay for the book to be printed, raise awareness, and support for experience-based learning. Kickstarter funds from this book will enable us to continue to pursue our mission and pay for the next book to be illustrated.
A Foodie Future
My philosophy is simple: actively engaging children to learn about diverse food promotes healthy eating habits and decreases the likelihood of chronic disease.
Active, positive engagement with food fosters an optimal learning environment that allows children to experiment with new foods, learn about what they are eating, and express their likes and dislikes. In my experience, providing children with the language to describe why they like or dislike foods helps minimize the incidence of picky eaters. This approach to meal time creates an atmosphere for children to share positive food experiences with their family and peers. My hope is to make whole foods fun and increase their consumption.
The self-discovery and fun isn’t just between the pages of this books. I have a website designed for both children and families. Children can access the “Playground” on the website to play games, test their nutrition knowledge, and win downloadable prizes! Parents, grandparents, and teachers will appreciate the blogs, videos, and easy to make recipes (complete with how to’s) that the whole family will love. We are creating a community and environment for experience-based learning.
Connect with us on our Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest, and Join Our Community on our website to receive benefits such as timely nutrition information, new games, meal inspiration, and so much more.
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/experiencedelicious/
Website: http://experiencedeliciousnow.com/
Meet the Team!
My Name is Mary and I Love Images!
An image is worth a thousand words. I am a graphic/editorial designer and art director and images are my expertise and preferred way to communicate and teach. The power of images always fascinated me. A single photograph or illustration can educate and redefine how people think. This is one of the many reasons why I loved bringing this challenging project to life.
Illustrating this book gave me the opportunity to explore the way children relate to books, not only as everyday learning objects, but as sources of entertainment and fun. My main challenge as a designer for this project was to turn a complex topic into an easy to read and understandable book. We accomplished this by exploring new ways to display and organize information based on children’s actual reading habits. The result is a visually striking and easy to read book that kids will love!
As a team, we are confident that these books will help kids around the world to learn healthier eating habits that will significantly improve their quality of life. We passionately worked to produce the content and images that made this first book possible and are excited to continue with the rest of the series. We need your support to make the rest of the series a reality!
I’m Brette and I’m a Professional Problem Solver!
My nickname growing up was MacGyver which goes a long way to explain how I gravitated towards a career in business process improvement. When there is a problem my brain says, “Let’s fix it!” Sometimes you have the right tools to solve a problem and sometimes you need additional resources. This book is a tool and a resource to inspire youth to be more engaged with their food choices. I would have loved this book when I was a kid.
My tool box includes a master’s degree in Public Administration and certifications in project management, grants management, and lean six sigma. I provided support for this book throughout the various iterations as a technical editor and sounding board. It is an honor to play a part watching Dani’s idea grow into this beautiful book.
Juicy Rewards:
Digital Wallpapers for Electronic Devices
Fruity Recipe Cards
Fruit Coloring Book
Fruity Collectable Posters
Fruity Seasonal Calendar
Fruit ABCs
***If this campaign is fully funded then all backers who ordered books will receive a discount towards the next book.***
Opportunities for FREE Fruity Rewards
Backers have the opportunity to receive rewards for sharing this Kickstarter on any social media platform (e.g., Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn). When you share on one of these sites you'll receive 1 FREE Printable Dragon Fruit character coloring page!
To receive your reward all you have to do is "Like" our Facebook page, Experience Delicious and share our Kickstarter campaign on the social media platform of your choice with the hashtag #experiencedelicious. Then, email a screen capture of how you shared the love to our email: experiencedeliciousllc@gmail.com.
If you write a blog post about this Kickstarter send us a link via email experiencedeliciousllc@gmail.com and you will receive 5 Digital fruit wallpapers available for your computers, tablets, and mobile devices, 3 printable fruit filled recipe cards, and 1 Printable fruit character calendar.
If you work for a media outlet and promote my Kickstarter campaign or book in a newspaper, website, dietetic practice group, or nutrition advocacy page, etc. you will have the opportunity to receive a hardback copy of Where Do Bananas Come From? A Book of Fruits. To be considered for this reward please send an email with the content you used to promote the Kickstarter or book as well as screen shots to experiencedeliciousllc@gmail.com.
Visit our website: http://experiencedeliciousnow.com/
Like our Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/experiencedelicious/
Video Music Credit: Incompetech, Kevin MacLeod, Carpe Diem
Risks and challenges
The book is complete! Once we are funded, all digital rewards will be sent via email and we will start the printing process for the hardback books. We expect the turnaround time from the end of the Kickstarter campaign to delivery will be about 8 weeks. We hope to have "Bananas" in your hands by June 2017.
We believe the primary risk may be time delays for printing. I have selected a printer that will deliver a high quality, full-color print of the 242 page hardback book. Should any issues arise, I promise to let you know about them and how we will remedy the problem
Thank you so very much for your generosity and support for our mission to inspire children to try new foods, decrease chronic disease, and grow a healthy future.
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Funding period
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