From everyone of us at “Can Do” Street, “A Merry Christmas and a Healthy and Happy New Year!”

The Partnership for Food Safety Education (http://fightbac.org) offers the following tips for preventing foodbourne bacteria this Halloween:

• Keep all perishable food chilled until serving time. These include, for example, finger sandwiches, cheese platters, cut fruit or tossed salads, cold pasta dishes with meat, poultry, or seafood, and cream pies or cakes with whipped-cream and cream-cheese frosting. Cold temperatures help keep most bacteria from multiplying.
• To keep store-bought party trays cold, fill lids with ice and place trays on top.  Similarly, keep salads and other perishable items in bowls cold by nesting them in larger bowls of ice.
• Arrange food on several small platters. Refrigerate platters of food until it is time to serve, and rotate food platters within two hours.

• Bacteria will creep up on you if you let platters of food sit out for too long.  Don’t leave perishable goodies out for more than two hours at room temperature (1 hour in temperatures above 90°F).

• When whipping up Halloween treats, don’t taste dough and batters that contain uncooked eggs.
• Beware of  unpasteurized juice or cider that can contain harmful bacteria such as E.coli O157:H7 and Salmonella. Serve only pasteurized products at your Halloween party.
• Remind kids (and adults too!) to wash their hands before and after eating to help prevent foodborne illness.
• Bobbing for Apples – Try a new spin on bobbing for apples. Cut out lots of apples from red construction paper.  Write activities for kids to do on each apple, such as “say ABCs” or “do 5 jumping jacks”. Place a paper clip on each apple and put them in a large basket. Tie a magnet to a string or create a fishing pole with a dowel rod, magnet and yarn.  Let the children take turn “bobbing” with their magnet and doing the activity written on their apple.

•  Give children a fresh apple for participating in your food safe version of bobbing for apples .

This Halloween why not encourage your Trick or Treaters to share some of their Halloween bounty with others who could use a treat?

Let’s face it, kids don’t need all the candy they get on Halloween. Sharing their bounty is a great way of practicing kindness and generosity.

Here are a few suggestions as to what to do with the Halloween candy your children are willing to share with others:

• What a treat it would be for residents of a senior assisted living facility to receive a visit from young children in costumes giving out a part of their goodies. What happy memories it would bring back for the seniors! What a lasting memory it would be for the children to witness the happiness they were giving just by sharing a little bit of their time and a few pieces of candy.

• There are children who will not get to go trick or treating. Two groups of children that will not be trick or treating are those that live in homeless shelters with their moms, and those that live with their moms in safe houses for domestic violence victims. You will need to call your local Dept of Social Services to find out where you can drop off Halloween candies for these two groups. Their exact locations, especially domestic violence safe houses, are not given out to the public.

• Another good use for all that extra Halloween candy-send it in a care package to our troops serving overseas.  This could be a great school, church or recreation center group project.  How wonderful for child to get a letter from a soldier, who is overseas, thanking him or her for sharing Halloween. For more information on how to collect and where to send the candy go to:

www.dosomething.org/actnow/actionguide/how-collect-halloween-candy-our-troops#

If you are looking for free craft projects, lesson plans and educational materials for children 3-7 years, spend some time in the “Can Do” Street Mall checking out the Crafts/Games and Teaching Resources.

Take advantage of the free materials that are there for your use. The materials are the work of parents, grandparents, educators, recreation and crafts personnel.

Each week we add more resources, shared by individuals, organizations and companies with the hope that you will visit their sites and make use of the 1,000s of free materials that they offer.

There is no catch, no hidden costs to using the free materials you find on the sites that list in the mall.

Prior to listing each of the free sites in the mall, the staff of “Can Do” Street check out the content to make sure it is suitable for out audience of parents, teachers and other adults involved in the care of young children .

To list your site in either Crafts and Games or Teaching Resources the content must meet the following criteria:

• Contain free resources suitable, in all or in part, for children 3-7 years

• Resources must be easy to download and use

If you wish to list, please send the following information about your free site to jeanc@candostreet.com:

• A brief description of your site
• A logo, if you have one
• Your URL address so that we may create an active link to your site

We look forward to having you visit the “Can Do” Mall where the resources are free and fun!