AAFCS recognizes the important role that partnership plays in supporting individuals, families, and communities to achieve an optimal quality of life assisted by competent, caring Family and Consumer Sciences (FCS) professionals whose expertise is continually updated through AAFCS.

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Program Guide

Educated Choices Program is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization that provides food education, empowering students and community members to recognize the importance and responsibility of making informed decisions, building a healthier, more sustainable future for everyone.


We offer free professionally narrated videos and downloadable lesson plans, discussion prompts, activities, and other materials in an accessible digital library. Many of the videos we offer are narrated in both English and Spanish, and include closed-captioning in several other languages. Materials are science-based, teacher-approved, and align with international educational standards. They are also impactful: over 90% of our viewers are inspired to make positive food choices after watching our videos.

We believe that improving access to food and nutrition education can play a critical role in addressing the issues we face today, such as the rise in chronic diseases and growing environmental concerns. We consistently add new topics and resources for a diverse and growing audience of over 3.7 million people in 68 countries since our inception in 2015.

About Educated Choices Program: EducatedChoices.org | Resource Library: LearnECProgram.org | Social Media: LinkedIn - Facebook - Instagram - Pinterest

Program Updates: 

The Educated Choices Program recently partnered with Doctors for Nutrition, a doctor-led nonprofit improving health through evidence-based nutrition education. Through this collaboration, two new topics are being added to ECP’s online library: “Heart Smart: Eating for Cardiovascular Health” and the upcoming “Unlocking Diabetes: Nutrition is the key."

One of ECP’s newest resources, “Rethinking Food Waste: The Journey of Food,” has quickly become a teacher favorite and was named a 2025 Teacher Pick by We Are Teachers. This video empowers viewers to make more informed decisions about their food choices and reduce their food waste.

AAFCS members can create an account on our free resource library at www.educatedchoices.org. This account provides unlimited access to all of ECP’s educational materials, including videos, lesson plans, discussion prompts, activities, and more resources for continued learning.

Visit https://www.ecprogram.org/ to learn more about the Educated Choices Program.

Based in Eau Claire, Wisconsin, Realityworks is a leading provider and developer of experiential learning solutions. Committed to quality products, comprehensive curriculum, customer satisfaction, and top-notch service, Realityworks engages students, assists educators in teaching essential skills, and offers opportunities for career exploration.

www.realityworks.com- Twitter - LinkedIn - YouTube - Facebook

Realityworks publishes new webinars each quarter, visit the website here to check the current schedule. 

  • Using Simulation to Teach Life Stage Development - Wednesday, September 10, 2025 11am PT / 12pm MT / 1pm CT / 2pm ET
  • Announcing the Birth of RealCare Baby 4.0 - Thursday, September 25, 2025 9:30am PT / 10:30am MT / 11:30am CT / 12:30pm ET
  • Best Practices for Running a Mixed RealCare Baby 3 and RealCare Baby 4 Classroom - Thursday, October 8, 2025 9:30am PT / 10:30am MT / 11:30am CT / 12:30pm ET
  • Real Educators, Real Impact: Implementing the Child Care Experience Program in the Classroom - Thursday, October 23, 2025 9:30am PT / 10:30am MT / 11:30am CT / 12:30pm ET

Realityworks also has many free career exploration lesson plans.

• Food science and meat evaluation career exploration
• Business and marketing career exploration
• Culinary arts and food science career exploration
• Family & Consumer Sciences (FCS) career exploration
• Child care career exploration
• Interior design career exploration
• Health science career exploration
• Human Services career exploration
• STEM for FCS programs

The Family Dinner Project, a nonprofit initiative started in 2010, champions family dinner as an opportunity for family members to connect with each other through food, fun and conversation about things that matter. More than 25 years of scientific research shows “why” family mealtimes are so important.

The Family Dinner Project provides the “how” for today’s busy families. With nonprofit partners and local champions, The Family Dinner Project team works online and in communities to help families increase the frequency, meaning and long-term benefits of their shared meals. We are based in Boston at Massachusetts General Hospital’s Psychiatry Academy.

thefamilydinnerproject.org - Facebook - Threads - Instagram

All of the offerings on The Family Dinner Project's website are complimentary and available to FCS professionals.
Some of our newer materials include an at-home Community Dinner toolkit for creating stronger in-person relationships, our family dinner podcast, our Welcoming Table initiative to help families work with sensory, behavioral, and learning differences at the dinner table, and our Youth Sports and Family Dinner resources.

Members can also sign up for our newsletter to get the latest resources, or follow us on social media (Facebook, Instagram, Threads @thefamilydinnerproject)
Community Dinners at home toolkit: https://thefamilydinnerproject.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/Community-Dinners-at-Home-2-1.pdf
Podcast: thefamilydinnerproject.org/the-family-dinner-project-podcast
Welcoming Table: thefamilydinnerproject.org/welcoming-table
Youth Sports and Family Dinners: thefamilydinnerproject.org/youth-sports-and-family-dinner

We would really like to draw attention to our podcast and the opportunity for listeners to send us questions or dilemmas we can answer in new episodes.


We also want to highlight the launch of a new statewide initiative in Nebraska, coming in 2026, and the opportunity for Nebraska-based AAFCS members to inquire about becoming collaborators in that project.

Gifting Sense is an award-winning, early financial education nonprofit that helps middle and high school students build financial confidence with a permissionless mindful spending tool that makes learning about money immediately helpful.
We believe that early success with thinking before buying inspires students to seek out the more sophisticated financial information they'll need later, when it is relevant and helpful, building financially literate citizens for life.

Gifting Sense was founded with one clear purpose: to offer personal finance lessons where subject mastery always begins - at the beginning. Thinking before buying is a foundational personal finance skill -  think of it as the ABCs or 123s of learning how to be “good with money”. Our Mission is to eliminate financial illiteracy by teaching school-aged children to think before buying when their money habits and beliefs are still developing.
Giftingsense.org - Instagram - Facebook - LinkedIn

Gifting Sense(.org), a mission-driven non-profit, offers free, fun, and interactive financial literacy workshops and activities for kids (ages 9-15) — chief among them, our mindful spending tool, the DIMS – DOES IT MAKE SENSE?® SCORE Calculator.

The DIMS – DOES IT MAKE SENSE?® SCORE Calculator is a permissionless, mindful spending tool that makes learning about money immediately helpful to school-age children! It enables students to ask and answer simple questions about typical purchases before spending their own or anyone else's money. Perfect for students in grades 4 through 10, this tool helps them answer the question: "Should I buy this Item or Experience?" in real time. It supports critical thinking and fits easily into classroom schedules, making it a valuable resource for educators.

Gifting Sense also offers “Thinking Before Buying” workshops (both in-person and virtual) where school-aged children are introduced to the DIMS – DOES IT MAKE SENSE?® SCORE Calculator, through interactive and hands-on activities, at no cost to teachers, parents, or students. 

Our website, giftingsense.org, also offers free Educator Resources & Lesson Plans. Educators can download ready-to-use lesson plans, glossaries, worksheets, and classroom activities.

AAFCS Members can learn more about our program at Giftingsense.org

  • Our permissionless mindful spending tool, the DIMS - DOES IT MAKE SENSE?® SCORE Calculator is accessible without a paywall or registration on our homepage: www.giftingsense.org.
  • How it works page - Contains a great 2-minute demo video on the calculator.
  • Teacher Tab - Contains lesson plans/ activities/ resources available for every quarter of the year.
  • Educator FAQs - Includes all the tips we’ve gathered from delivering workshops to educators.
  • To book a workshop - https://giftingsense.org/book-a-workshop/#book-calendly-workshop

For further details, members are free to contact us: https://giftingsense.org/contact/

Projects on the Horizon

This past year, we have more than doubled our reach, thanks to our direct engagement with over 650 educators through our workshops and teacher training. Our scale model is “Teach the Teacher,” which keeps our tools and resources permissionless and truly accessible to all, without registration or a paywall. Looking ahead, we’re focused on deepening our impact nationwide, across all 50 states.

We are also assessing demand for additional DIMS SCORE® Calculators for post-secondary programs, first cars or apartments, and communities where college isn’t assumed. 

As well as demand for culturally sensitive avatars and institutionally sensitive DIMS SCORE® Calculator questions for different communities.

Pelican Invests is a financial-literacy platform that helps children and families build strong money habits through story-based learning, engaging activities, and educator-ready curriculum. Our bestselling children’s book Penny the Pelican Plans Ahead and our award-winning content makes financial concepts simple, fun, and accessible for early learners.


We partner with schools, family and educators, credit unions, and community organizations to deliver resources, workshops, and professional-development sessions that empower families to learn about saving, budgeting, and planning together. Pelican’s mission is to make financial confidence a core part of everyday life.

www.pelicaninvests.com - Instagram - YouTube - LinkedIn

 

At Pelican Invests, you can find complimentary kits, packages, products, services, or programs which FCS professionals and the individuals, families, and communities they serve can sign up to receive or take part in.

Pelican Invests is a Digital platform that includes access to our bestselling children’s picture book Penny the Pelican Plans Ahead, activity sheets, lessons, family engagement resources, conversation prompts, and money-confidence activities for children and adults alike. Learn more here: https://tools.pelicaninvests.com/

AAFCS members can learn more about Pelican’s new programs by visiting our resource hub at www.pelicaninvests.com/families and exploring our complimentary educator materials at www.pelicaninvests.com/schools.


Members can also sign up to receive free financial-literacy kits, lesson packs, and program updates at https://tools.pelicaninvests.com by signing up.


If members would like a customized school or community pilot, they can request access by emailing hello@pelicaninvests.com —pilots are accepted on a rolling basis.

Upcoming Product or Service

Pelican Invests is launching new Financial Literacy Classroom Kits for grades K–5, which include story-based lessons, activities, and family engagement materials. We also have a new Near-to-Peer Teaching Program, where older students help teach financial concepts to younger learners using structured guides and interactive activities.


Members can sign up to participate or receive early access updates at https://tools.pelicaninvests.com
 or by emailing hello@pelicaninvests.com.

The Home Baking Association advocates for increased baking by providing tools and knowledge to perpetuate generations of home bakers.  As baking continues to evolve, the HBA advances to meet the needs of the home baking community and the family & consumer science classrooms, cooperative extension, after school programs from early childhood to collegiate level while bridging the gap to potential future careers.

www.homebaking.org - Facebook - Twitter - Instagram

 

The Home Baking Association advocates for increased baking by providing tools and knowledge to perpetuate generations of home bakers while building bridges to potential future careers.  

Homebaking.org – website continually changes with monthly newsletter, baking calendar and blogs.  Multiple baking lessons, PowerPoints, videos, extensive baking glossary and more are available for free on the website.  Resources are provided by HBA & its members.

Social media posts 5 days a week on Facebook and Instagram weekly

Hands-on baking workshops at state and national levels paid for through sponsorships and registration fees.

A Bakers Dozen Lab Manual – newly updated USB and/or printed manual that provides 242 pages of teaching materials with 13 labs including first, intermediate and advance culinary baking formulas & lessons https://www.homebaking.org/a-bakers-dozen-labs/   Classroom tested curriculum teaches over 35 National FCS Standards plus core history, science, literacy, math and more.  There is a step by step How to video on the best way to use the lab manual included on the website.  There is a cost for this resource. 

The best way to learn about the Home Baking Association is through our website, www.homebaking.org,
 sign up for our monthly newsletter and follow us on Facebook.

HBA Educator of the Year Award - The Home Baking Association and North Dakota Mill have partnered to present the annual Educator Award honoring outstanding educators in classrooms and communities who engage individuals, families and communities with the many educational benefits & developed lessons baking provides for personal, family or professional development.  https://www.homebaking.org/educator-award/

HBA Bake to Give – Maddie Kruse Youth Award - The Home Baking Association, ADM Milling Company, and the Maddie Kruse Family have partnered to present the youth educator award, bringing attention to youth bakers who are actively making a difference in their communities through baking. The award aims to inspire others to do the same. - https://www.homebaking.org/youthaward/

Eligible to win $1000, a trip to HBA’s Annual meeting, HBA & member resources.  
Deadline for submission - May 1