Teaching Children About Food: a Multicultural Approach

By Uli Koester, Program Director, Midwest Food Connection

For ten years now the Midwest Food Connection has been reaching into the community of the Wedge Co-op. Sponsored by five co-ops in the metro region, the Midwest Food Connection (MFC) employs teachers to visit elementary schools to present lessons on natural foods and nutrition. In this 2006/7 school year, we taught at 50 schools and reached over 6,000 students, most of them with an in-depth unit consisting of multiple school visits.

Almost every student who has attended schools in the vicinity of the Wedge over the last decade has learned about and experienced the foods we value: whole grains, fresh fruits and vegetables, and the harvest from local, sustainable and organic farmers. Children have milled whole wheat into f lour, tasted kohlrabi and cucumbers, designed their own diversified farms, and taken trips to local growers.

Over the years the dramatic change in our community's diversity has caught our attention. The Minneapolis Public Schools currently have 73% percent enrollment of what we used to call "minorities." 42% of all students are African-Americans, many of them new immigrants to our country. The Hispanic population has grown from 9% five years ago to 14% now, and it will surely grow again next year. The Asian population is over 10%.

MFC teachers see this new and wonderful mix of cultures in the schools every day. We revel in the diversity, and are thrilled to be expanding the reach of our programming to more families. At the same time, we realize that we need to adjust our curriculum in order to make an impact on all the students. Wheat, for example, is no longer the dominant grain in most homes. Tomatoes, peppers and cabbage are enjoyed by many cultures while others, such as leeks and kale, are favored by the European tradition and deserve perhaps less attention.

As a first attempt to make our programming more germane with the cultures we encounter in the classroom, the MFC launched a new curriculum this spring we call "Gifts of Many Cultures." It highlights a selection of foods that the newer immigrants among us enjoy. We don't pretend to be experts - and we don't need to be, because the children share the teaching job with us! The eyes of young Somali immigrants light up when we introduce the spongy enjera bread and its main ingredient, the east African grain teff. They then describe they eat it either sweet or dipped in a spicy sauce. At the sight of a sliced-open papaya a child from Mexico feels compelled to tell everyone how the seeds are used as a spice, while the Hmong girl wants to share how her family loves a tasty papaya salad.

For our final visit in this set of lessons, we ask each child to share a food from their traditions at home. They may bring in an actual item, draw a picture, or recount a story about their family's favorite food. They share these stories with another in small groups before coming together for a large tasting circle on the floor. In a recent class taught not too far from the Wedge, one such small group shared these four foods: Hungarian palichenta (a sweet pocket), a meat and onion dish from Africa called sambusa, great-grandma's ravioli and a dish a child called mock chicken legs. One father had worked deep into the night to prepare a purple rice pudding from an Asian tradition, complete with five optional toppings. Several weeks later, another father came during my class to deliver some fresh African enjera bread!

It is wonderful to see children learning about and tasting what their peers eat in their homes. But our lessons serve another crucial purpose: by including those foods that children are accustomed to, we engage the children in our teaching. When we can work with their prior knowledge and show them the foods they know, then we can teach and encourage whole grains, fresh produce, and unprocessed foods. Children can then begin to make healthy food choices within their own tradition. They may also start to feel comfortable choosing good foods that others eat. Each child has her or his own path towards being smart and healthy food consumers, and MFC wants to move them along it. With such cultural richness around them and the doors of the Wedge open down the street, MFC will be sure to move them along that road.

The Midwest Food Connection is a not-for-profit organization that receives funding from five food co-ops in the Metro area. During the 2006/7 school year, MFC has taught in the following schools near the Wedge: Barton Open, City of Lakes Waldorf, Emerson Spanish Immersion, Jefferson, Kenwood, Marcy Open, Ramsey Fine Arts, and Whittier Community School. For more information, or to invite the program to your school, call at the Wedge, (612) 871-3993, ext. 425.