In North Carolina Head Start classrooms, preschoolers are learning to love science—and maybe even vegetables—through a deceptively simple approach: putting food at the center of lessons. A new study from North Carolina State University and East Carolina University shows that a food-based learning program called "More PEAS Please!" has dramatically shifted how young children understand the natural world, sparking curiosity while building vocabulary skills that will serve them in kindergarten and beyond.
The research, published in the Journal of Nutrition Education and Behavior, examined whether using food as a teaching tool could ignite children's interest in science while introducing them to nutritious foods grown locally. It's a question rooted in observation: young children are naturally drawn to food, so why not harness that interest to teach bigger concepts? Virginia Stage, an associate professor of agricultural and human sciences at North Carolina State and the study's lead author, saw an opportunity to tackle two challenges at once. "We want to encourage kids to get excited about science and be curious about the world around them. We saw food as a way to get kids excited about learning, because you can also use food as a way to teach so many different concepts, like science, mathematics and language," Stage said.
The team tested the program across three North Carolina counties, comparing more than 125 students who participated in "More PEAS Please!" with almost 150 who did not. The results were striking. Children receiving the food-based learning intervention increased their understanding of scientific concepts four times more than the control group. Their vocabulary growth was equally impressive: children in the program grew their vocabulary by nearly 20% by the end of the school year, while children without the intervention increased theirs by just 6%.
One classroom unit focused on seeds—the building blocks of fruits and vegetables. Children didn't simply read about seeds; they examined them closely, watched how they germinate, tested how they grow in different conditions with and without sun and water, and then created a "seed salsa" recipe using tomatoes and corn. This hands-on approach transforms abstract scientific concepts into something tangible, observable, and edible.
What makes the program particularly powerful, though, is how it reframes success around healthy foods. Jocelyn Dixon, assistant director and research project coordinator for the Feeding & Eating Education Lab at NC State, emphasizes that the goal isn't to force children to eat vegetables. Instead, it's to create low-pressure opportunities for exploration. "We often trap ourselves into thinking that success means that a child ends up eating some broccoli or spinach. But if the last time you did an activity, the child only touched the spinach with a fork, and today the child is open to touching it and tearing it with their fingers—that's a huge win," Dixon said.
The program also invests heavily in teachers. Intervention teachers attend an all-day workshop early in the school year and receive ongoing support through supplemental resources and YouTube whiteboard videos that teach them how to talk about science with four-year-olds. Stage notes this teacher development is essential: "We're investing in the teachers so that they can practice those skills and invest in their kids."
For preschoolers often hesitant about fruits and vegetables, food-based learning offers something traditional instruction cannot—a bridge between curiosity and nutrition, between abstract concepts and lived experience.