When my children were little, I was entrusted by my synagogue with the great privilege of teaching Torah you the younger children. I love it! We created plays and had exciting discussions, but snack time always got us off track.

On the week of Parashat Vayeyshev, I had an idea: maybe the snack could be PART of the Torah lesson? I purchased some apples, some grapes, and some toothpicks sliced the various apples, and put them all in front of
the children. Voila’! The Parsha Nosh was born!

I later recreated this first “masterpiece;” here it is:

I was surprised how much the children loved this! They got to be active, crafty and eat tasty food! Even better, I found that they REMEMBERED what they had learned!

The catalogue of ideas grew. Eventually I had two sets of snack ideas: one, like the first, which consisted of healthy, tasty, whole foods, and one consisting of shelf-stable food that was always at the ready.

My children are now grown, but with their encouragement I am sharing these ideas, which I never would have had had it not been for them.