Hi everyone, It’s time for the main course of this food sustainability blog series!
Setting the Table
Before we dig in, we have a quick recap. For this service-learning project, I have been working with a non-profit organization called SustainED, which is working to implement sustainability education into classroom curriculum. When I joined up with SustainED the focus/theme of this education for the current semester was food sustainability in a local middle school. In previous posts, I discussed how we created content to make food sustainability more personally relevant with students, and I gave an example of one of our activities where students mapped out ingredients of a recipe that created, determining the amount of GHG (Green House Gas) emissions were created in bringing their ingredients to Toronto.
To preface my discussion about the final culminating project in our curriculum I wish to reference an article by Jones et al. on their research of food sustainability education and how to explore it:
Climate change, biodiversity, animal welfare, local economic development, social justice and cultural regeneration aspects of food are topics that may create alternative routes for health education messages. Furthermore, food sustainability, as an overarching theme, may offer the opportunity to re-energize multi-component health programmes in schools as a conceptually coherent set of practices (Jones et al., p. 449; 2012).
Before continuing I just wish to emphasize is, I feel the purpose of this food sustainability pilot curriculum is aligned with what is being said by Jones et al. As I mentioned earlier, we tried making food sustainability personal for students, and I feel that SustainED is focusing on things like climate change and cultural messages when implementing this curriculum into classrooms. The only difference to the paper in my eyes, is that were not aligned with a health class, but rather focus on implementing food sustainability in many subjects.
The Final Dish of The Curriculum
I mentioned in previous posts that the culminating project in the curriculum was having students redesign a food recipe they chose at the beginning of the curriculum, in order to make it more sustainable. The project specifically looked at: reducing the cost of ingredients, finding closer locations to reduce GHG emissions, and finding proper portions and containers to reduce food waste and garbage. What I personally liked about the culminating project is not only did it build on knowledge students gained during the curriculum, but it raised awareness on how food sustainability could be tackled from different angles.
What resonates with me more specifically in the project is how the choice of food containers ties into sustainability, and I know that I’m at fault when buying large amounts of coffee without bringing a reusable thermos (Sorry Oba!).
And…comically I remember bringing in a self-made recipe for chicken fried rice in Grade 3 that required 100 chickens, imagine the food waste! (Once again, sorry Oba!).
What I’m getting at is how different aspects have the potential to appeal to different students, much how we view our learning styles. I think back to when one student sourced all the ingredients in his spaghetti meatball recipe to Italy, and now that he’s asked to find locations closer to Toronto, he might be excited to see his dramatic reduction of GHG emissions.
Washing the Dishes
Unfortunately, due to the timing of our research paper, I’m sad to say that even though I designed the culminating project, I was unable to see how the students reacted to what their work built up to. I felt like a chef that serves food to their customers but stays in the kitchen not knowing what is being said about the food.
I enjoyed the process of creating the project, but I do admit I felt very stressed at the time juggling the demands of the program in addition to volunteering and admittedly having an unrelated poor day of teaching that week. What I do appreciate about the process, however, is learning how to juggle these demands, and feelings of life in a way that does not hinder my passion of teaching. All good cooking needs love in practice, and I feel the same about teaching and education.
In my next blog, I’ll explore my feelings more regarding the curriculum, and hopefully will have accounts from my colleagues of how the students reacted to the culminating project.
Until next time, save room for the dessert!
Reference and Pictures:
Jones, M., Dailami, N., Weitkamp, E., Salmon, D., Kimberlee, R., Morley, A., & Orme, J. (2012). Food sustainability education as a route to healthier eating: Evaluation of a multi-component school programme in english primary schools. Health Education Research, 27(3), 448-458. doi:10.1093/her/cys016
Cover Image (Cook Kirby): From Nintendo’s Kirby Star Allies (2018), Retrieved From : https://kirby.fandom.com/wiki/Cook
Busy Chef, Retrieved From: https://pngtree.com/freepng/busy-chef_2886988.html
Food For Thought 