Time to Tuck In! Great Food Games for Kids

Whether you want to help your kids learn more about food, have some time to fill on a rainy day, or are looking for fun food activities, we’ve got all you can eat in our list below! From Food Memory Match to food art, these fun games will have your child learning, laughing, and maybe even keen to try some new foods. Plus, we’ve got all the tips you need to organize the best food party or event ever. Ready to tuck in?

Contents:

• Why Food Games are Great for Kids
• Top Food Games for Kids
• Interactive Cooking Games for Kids
• Online Food Games for Kids
• Food Games for Teaching Healthy Habits
• Food-Themed Games for Group Play
  • Best Ways to Incorporate Food-Themed Games into an Event or Classroom Activity
• Tips for Organizing a Food Game Day

Why Food Games are Great for Kids

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There are lots of reasons to get started with a food-themed game or activity. Here are some of the best:

• Finding out about foods can help children make more healthy eating choices.
• Learning how to cook is not only a great practical ability but also supports things like counting, measuring, weighing, reading, and creativity.
• They can encourage children—even fussy eaters—to try new foods.
• Food games make for great family bonding time and can help get kids away from screens.
• They’re super fun!

Top Food Games for Kids

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Before diving into specific categories, let’s look at some of the classic and most beloved food-themed games kids enjoy across ages. These options are simple to set up and endlessly fun!

Fruit and Vegetable Sorting

This versatile sorting game is a great way to get kids thinking about their food and promotes cognitive and fine motor skills, too. To set up, all you need to do is spread lots of different types of fruits and veggies on a tabletop (or tray) and ask your child to sort the pieces into various categories, such as color, size, and type. Can they come up with any other categories to sort the foods into?

Food Memory Match

One of the most popular food games for kids, Food Memory Match enhances memory skills and builds food knowledge. Best of all, you can use pictures of food or even real food to play. Kids take turns turning over two cards (or opening, for example, the lids of two tubs) to try to find matching pairs. The child who collects the most is the winner!

Guess the Food Challenge

When it comes to fun food games, they don’t get much more entertaining than the Guess the Food Challenge—and it’s a great way to develop sensory skills, too! Pop a blindfold on your child and have them try different foods; their task is to identify what each is. For an extra challenge, have them smell foods rather than taste them and see how many they can get right with just their nose as a guide.

Food Art

Nurture your kid’s creative side by suggesting they make a beautiful piece of food art. There are so many ways this activity can be undertaken, from creating shapes and patterns with fruits to arranging the various elements of their lunch into a simple picture. Potatoes and other root vegetables can also be used to create a collection of paint stampers for your budding artist!

Healthy Snack Creation

Suggest your child becomes a little chef and have them come up with their own healthy meal or snack using the ingredients provided. There are lots of ways you can turn this activity into a game, such as by setting a timer and turning it into a race or awarding a prize to the most creative attempt. The best part? Kids get to eat their entries at the end!

Interactive Cooking Games for Kids

There are some fantastically fun interactive food board games available that are great for teaching kids more about food, cooking, and the importance of a balanced diet. Below are some examples that’ll help turn your child into a bona fide foodie!

Foodie Fight Trivia Game

Credit: amazon.com

• Age: 10+
• This food-focused trivia game challenges players’ knowledge about ingredients, cooking techniques, and global cuisine. It’s perfect for older kids who love facts and want to show off their foodie smarts.

Monopoly Pizza Game

Credit: amazon.com

• Age: 8+
• A delicious twist on the classic Monopoly format! Instead of properties, players collect pizza toppings and build pies. It’s great for younger players and encourages decision-making and basic math skills.

Sushi Go Party!

Credit: amazon.com

• Age: 8+
• A colorful, fast-paced card game where players draft sushi-themed dishes to build the most valuable meal. Perfect for building strategy and planning skills in a fun, lighthearted way.

Ramen Fury

Credit: boardgamegeek.com

• Age: 8+
• This quick card game is all about creating the perfect bowl of ramen using ingredients and seasoning cards. It encourages creativity and attention to detail as players craft their dishes.

Point Salad

Credit: boardgamegeek.com

• Age: 8+
• A simple yet strategic card game in which players create combinations of vegetables and recipes for points. It’s easy to learn and fast to play, making it a great choice for family evenings.

Chai

• Age: 10+
• This beautifully illustrated board game lets kids take on the role of tea merchants trying to serve customers by collecting ingredients. It teaches planning and resource management in a gentle, relaxing format.

These are just a few examples, there are tons of cooking and food-themed board games available, suitable for very young kids to teens.

Online Food Games for Kids

The online world is also a good source of food games for kids—and most of them are free. Here’s a roundup of some of the options.

Junior Cafe

App Store

• Age: 2+
• Review: 4/5

Junior Cafe is a cooking game that aims to develop culinary skills and keep kids entertained. Children can learn recipes and then practice them in the platform’s virtual bakery—and maybe one day in the real world!

Funny Food Academy

App Store

• Age: 2+
• Review: 4.5/5

This top app offers engaging, interactive food games that teach school skills, such as the alphabet, counting, and shape recognition. Lots of fun characters are on hand to help kids learn and progress through the platform.

Dr Panda’s Restaurant 2

App Store

• Age: 4+
• Review: 4/5

An extremely popular food and cooking-themed app, Dr Panda’s Restaurant 2 follows the success of the previous game. Players choose from a range of virtual ingredients and preparation techniques to create either a delicious dish or something delightfully disgusting! There are no time limits or scores given, as the onus is simply on having fun and getting creative with food.

Bamba Burger

App Store

• Age: 2+
• Review: 3.5/5

Kids take over the fast-food restaurant in this app; as well as flipping the burgers and serving the fries, they can also try their hand at creating their own crazy burgers! The bright and easy-to-use interface means children will get the hang of things in no time and can enjoy role-playing either the chef or the customer.

Awesome Eats

Microsoft Store

• Age: 4+
• Review: 3.5/5

Aiming to encourage children to make healthy food choices, Awesome Eats asks players to pack, stack, and plate vegetables, fruits, and whole grains to score points and win stars. Along with some satisfyingly challenging gameplay, there are lots of tips on healthy eating, more than 70 engaging characters to meet, and even some yummy surprises along the way!

Food Games for Teaching Healthy Habits

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When it comes to helping kids build lifelong healthy habits, playful learning is one of the most effective tools. The following food games not only entertain but also teach children the importance of nutrition and balanced eating in a hands-on, engaging way.

Create an Interactive Food Plate

Gather together lots of pictures of food (maybe cut from magazines) and give each child a large circle of paper (or a large paper plate) divided into sections for veggies, grains, fruits, proteins, and dairy. Ask children to put the images into the correct areas of their plate, and discuss how each element is an important part of a balanced diet.

Food Funny Faces

If chocolate or cake is your child’s go-to snack of choice, this activity could change things. Get prepared by chopping and slicing a variety of fruits and vegetables such as bananas, carrots, zucchinis, strawberries, onions, and celery, and then show your child how to use these items to create a funny face on a plate. It’s a good idea not to put pressure on your little one to try any of these foods if they don’t want to, but you never know, making healthy food fun can sometimes work wonders when it comes to picky eaters!

Restaurant Role Play

In this fun and educational game, children pretend to run a restaurant. They’re in charge of devising a healthy menu, with each meal representing a well-balanced plate. Ask kids to come up with ingredient and dish ideas and names for their creations. Suggest they create a beautiful menu that features each of their offerings, along with a description that tells the customer why it’s such a healthy choice.

Food-Themed Games for Group Play

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Got a group of kids to entertain or looking for food-themed party game ideas? If so, you’re spoiled for choice. Kids will love to work as a team to complete various food-themed challenges and activities. Here are some tried-and-tested favorites.

Food Scavenger Hunt

Get set up by preparing cards showing the different foods to be found, and hide these foods (such as oranges, tins of baked beans, or broccoli) around the space. Give each child a card and a basket or bag in which to place the items they find, set a timer, and see who can come back with all the food items the quickest. It’s the kids vs the clock to collect all the treasure!

Food Relay Race

There are endless options for a food relay race, from an egg-and-spoon relay to a popcorn relay, where children carry cups of popcorn tied to their shoes, trying to spill as little as possible! You could also try a My Plate relay race, where team members have to run in turn to collect all the elements (represented by pictures of food or items of plastic food) required to make up a healthy, balanced plate.

Foodie Musical Chairs

This food-themed take on a traditional party game classic is sure to please. Set out enough chairs for every child and then remove one chair. Choose four or more different types of fruits and vegetables and assign each child one of these names, such as Blueberries, Cauliflower, Spinach, and Beetroot. Play some music, and at random points, call out one of these four names. Now, the kids with this designation must change seats. The child left without a chair is out of the game, and another chair is removed. The last player remaining is the winner.

More Food-Related Team Games

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The party foodie fun doesn’t need to stop there! Consider incorporating one or more of the following activities into the special occasion:

• A fun food trivia contest—split kids into teams that earn points for every food-related question answered correctly. How about including a bonus blind taste round to see who can identify a mystery food when wearing a blindfold for extra points?
• For a banana split race, divide children into teams and work in relay to create and eat a banana split, with the first team to finish their treat the winner. Set out stations with everything needed, including bowls, a banana, blunt knives, ice cream, and various toppings. When the game starts, the first member of each team has to grab a banana and bowl and chop the fruit into chunks before handing over to the next team member to add the next ingredient, and so on.
• Kids will love taking on the marshmallow and spaghetti tower challenge! Get children into small teams of around two to four, put out big bowls of marshmallows and uncooked spaghetti, and challenge each team to build the highest tower they can out of just these two foodstuffs. The team who can build the tallest structure is the winner.
• For Chopsticks Pass, give each child a pair of chopsticks and ask the group to sit or stand in a circle. Now give a child a small food item, such as a raisin or marshmallow, and ask them to hold it with their chopsticks and pass it to the child on their left. Keep the item going for as long as possible around the circle—anyone who drops it is out!

Best Ways to Incorporate Food-Themed Games into an Event or Classroom Activity

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When it comes to incorporating some food-themed fun and games into an event, family gathering, or classroom activity, you’re on to a winner. However, there are a few things to take into account to ensure that all goes smoothly and everyone has a great time.

Most importantly, it’s absolutely vital to check whether any of the guests who will be attending have any food allergies or intolerances. Even if you think you know beforehand, don’t chance it—send a message to parents explicitly asking for this information well before your planned activity.

Start by thinking about the age of the children present to make sure that any game or activity you introduce is age-appropriate. This is a good way of avoiding frustration or boredom and keeping kids engaged. It’s also important to consider what you want the kids to get out of the activity. For example, is the main aim to encourage healthier eating habits, or are you looking for a fun game that’ll pique their interest in cooking? Having a clear objective at the start is highly advisable to get the best outcome for your efforts.

Theming can also work well. For a Halloween party, you could set kids up with a pizza base each and invite them to add their own “icky ingredients,” such as pepperoni and olive “eyes” and sliced green pepper “worms”! Or consider having a party or classroom activity that celebrates a certain country—such as Spain, Japan, or Germany—and putting out a range of snacks from the region for kids to try.

Tips for Organizing a Food Game Day

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A food game day is certain to be a big hit with kids. As well as plenty of fun and the opportunity to work together as a team, there’s always the potential to get messy, which most kids adore.

Follow our tips to have a food game day that hits the spot perfectly—and will leave everyone wanting more:

1. As we mentioned above, it’s vital to first get in contact with the parents of every child you’re planning on inviting to check for food allergies and intolerances. Also, ensure that every game and activity to be enjoyed is age-appropriate.
2. You may wish to have a general “foodie” day or to hone in on the theming, such as food from around the world, unusual foods, or types of food people ate in the past.
3. Design the invitations, menus, and event decorations with your theme in mind. For example, you could create bunting with brightly-colored dried fruits or even use icing to make edible bunting!
4. On your invites, make sure parents know what to expect. If there’s likely to be plenty of messiness, let them know their child shouldn’t wear their best outfit!
5. Space out activities throughout the day with enough time in between for kids to relax and unwind. It may be a good idea to intersperse energetic games (like a food relay race) with quieter food crafting activities.
6. If there will be various ages of children attending the event, design separate activities for different groups as necessary to ensure everyone can join in and be entertained.
7. Some kids are more willing to try new foods than others. It’s important not to get frustrated if one or more of the children is reluctant (or flat out refuses) to try one of the snacks you’ve laid on or get involved in a game. Keep things light and make sure you have some always-a-winner food options on hand for picky eaters.
8. Always make safety the priority. Obviously, very young children should never be left unsupervised while eating, and care should be taken with foods that could pose a choking hazard—for example, it may be a good idea to cut grapes in half. To further prevent the risk of choking, make sure kids don’t run or move about while eating.

While food games are a fun way to engage children, nothing beats the peace of mind that comes with knowing where they are at all times. The Findmykids app offers real-time GPS tracking and smart alerts, helping parents stay connected and confident—whether kids are off to school, a playdate, or a food-themed party.
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Download Findmykids today and turn everyday parenting into stress-free supervision.

Prepare for a Feast of Fun and Games!

Who would have thought food could be so entertaining? Food games are perfect for getting kids to learn, have fun, eat more healthily, and even develop an interest in cooking. Whether you’re thinking about theming an entire party or event around food or want to incorporate a food-themed activity into the classroom, you’ll find a delicious option above.

And who knows, as a result, your child may transform from the world’s pickiest eater to a full-on foodie! Well, we can dream…

Cover image: Igisheva Maria/Shutterstock