Growing Inclusion Through Nutrition and Nature

Thrive & Rooted was proud to join the City of Peoria at Rio Vista Community Center for a program designed for adults with intellectual and developmental disabilities, with a focus on introducing participants to outdoor recreation, hands-on learning, and new ways to connect with the world around them.

For our booth, we created a two-part interactive experience designed to be simple, engaging, and easy to move through at each participant’s own pace.

The first activity, “What Feeds What?”, invited participants to choose a fruit or vegetable and match it with a body part it supports using a dry erase board and magnets. The activity encouraged participants to think about foods they already know and enjoy while making a meaningful connection between nutrition and how the body works. It created an opportunity to talk about fruits and vegetables in a positive, approachable way without making the experience feel overly instructional.

From there, participants moved into a hands-on planting activity where they selected either a pea or bean seed to plant in a take-home pot. Thrive & Rooted team members guided each person through placing the seed into the soil, adding the right amount of water, and learning how to care for the plant once they returned home. Each participant also received a simple care card so they could continue the experience after the event and watch their seed grow over time.

Together, the activities blended nutrition education, gardening, movement, and sensory engagement in a way that made learning feel interactive and fun.

Experiences like this are an important part of Thrive & Rooted’s mission. We believe healthy living should be inclusive, practical, and accessible to everyone, and that education is most meaningful when people can see it, touch it, experience it, and take something home with them.

We are grateful to the City of Peoria and Rio Vista Community Center for creating opportunities that encourage participation, exploration, and connection, and we were honored to be part of a day centered on helping every participant engage with wellness in a way that felt welcoming and empowering.