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Culinary Arts Club members Jamira Richardson and
Kimberly Mejia serve an herbed white bean salad that
they prepared to Baltimore City Schools CEO Adreas
Alonso and HHA principal Matt Hornbeck during a
recent Community Dinner.
City school instructors are uprooting picky eating habits through dynamic multi-cultural food education. The Food for Life program is engaging the senses of Baltimore City students who grow, harvest, and enjoy fresh, healthful foods from their own school garden.
Chrissa Carlson is the Food For Life Educator at Hampstead Hill Academy in Canton, where grade-schoolers experience a hands-on approach to sustainability and healthy eating. From creating their own compost for planting to harvesting crops for a community dinner, students are given an opportunity to learn about the foods we eat while giving back to their community.
I caught up with Chrissa this week to learn more about the program and how it is changing the way students experience food. Here's what she had to say about her first year as a Food For Life Educator.
Me: What fundamentals does the FFL program teach, and how are students expected to apply these lessons in their daily lives?
Chrissa: The Food for Life program was launched based on the Food is Elementary curriculum by Dr. Antonia Demas. While the exact lessons that students are taught pulls material from many sources, the fundamentals of the curriculum are adhered to. While I don't preach vegetarianism, the program does encourage a plant-based diet for lifelong health. We use our school garden to observe the growing process and link foods to the plants that they come from. We learn to identify processed foods, and understand why most processed foods are "sometimes foods"— and why our bodies crave them! We learn the link between color and nutrition in fruits and vegetables, and encourage students to eat a variety of colors. Students are encouraged to be open-minded to trying foods and are taught how to politely respond to a food they dislike. They are encouraged to try it again in the future, even if they didn't like it.
Me: Getting kids involved with fresh, healthy foods must be challenging— any tips on capturing their interest?
Chrissa: I like to point out that the Food for Life program is a food education program, rather than a nutrition education program. While the primary goals of the program are to empower kids to choose healthy foods, the approach is based in engaging their senses and their minds in the fascinating world of food, rather than preaching nutrition facts. We experiment with tasting with our tongues versus noses, we touch, we smell, we squish, we cook, and we notice. I'd much rather have kids walk away from each food activity having had a fun positive experience with healthy foods than have them be able to tell me how many servings of grains they are supposed to eat in a day. The nutrition messages are in there to help them sort out choices in their everyday lives, but I don't think nutrition knowledge is what is going to drive those decisions— it's the experiences.
Me: How does the FFL program extend beyond the classroom?
Chrissa: The cooking activities provide students with basic cooking skills and recipes to try at home. Kids can have a powerful influence over their parents' purchasing habits. (In my dreams, they are crying in the grocery store to get their parents to buy them red bell peppers rather than candy.) The garden, parent workshops, and community dinners are also avenues for spreading the message to families and encouraging healthy habits at home.
Me: Does FFL have any hopes to improve the school lunch program?
Chrissa: The investment that Hampstead Hill Academy has made in its students' health and nutrition through the FFL program and related infrastructure (garden, kitchen classroom) has made us a site for piloting some of the improvements in school lunches that Tony Geraci has been trying to make over the past two years. Progress has been slow, but more changes are on the way; the fact that our students have been provided with opportunities to sample and prepare healthy foods makes them more likely to choose them when they are eventually offered on the school lunch menu. If participation in the school lunch program drops when the menu changes, schools lose federal money. Some districts argue against making school lunches healthier because they think kids won't buy them. It is therefore important to have complementary educational programs within schools to familiarize kids with the types of foods they will be offered on the lunchline, and provide them with positive messages and experiences that will encourage their participation. Hampstead Hill Academy has a cooking kitchen, (as opposed to a warming kitchen, which many Baltimore City Schools have) and we've seen some menu improvements this year such as whole wheat rolls and Meatless Mondays. We're hoping that we'll soon be transitioning to meals cooked from scratch— and that kids will eat them!
Me: Share a favorite story from your first year as a FFL instructor.
Chrissa: While preparing for the final Community Dinner of the school year, I was helping three girls process a large amount of kale (from Great Kids Farm, City Schools) for the fritata that would be our main dish. As we washed and stripped the leaves from the stems, I was thrilled to listen to their conversation: "I like the ones with the purplish stems" and "It smells good." Their senses were so engaged in the process— most people would probably not recognize that kale even has a smell! They were so wrapped up in the creation of the food, they had transformed into little foodie/chefs before my eyes!
Community dinners are happening all over Baltimore, so keep an eye out for events in your neighborhood to enjoy this experience for yourself. If your local school does not currently have a Food For Life program, visit the Baltimore Curriculum Project, find them on Facebook, or contact 410-675-7000 for more information.
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