Pilot Light hosts the first Food Education in Action Week, promoting awareness and investment in Food Education initiatives coast-to-coast
Food Education teachers are taking action in classrooms everyday. After over 13 years of working in the Food Education space, we at Pilot Light understand the dedication it takes to bring these hands-on, vitally important experiences to students of all ages and backgrounds. However, we also understand that not everyone is aware of the Food Education lessons teachers are conducting in their classrooms.
That’s why we decided to host the first-ever Food Education in Action Week this year. We compiled lesson plans, resource guides, and toolkits to help teachers raise awareness about Food Education in their communities. Together, our goal is to mobilize more people passionate about creating a better food systems future through education. As always, we were thrilled by our teachers’ and partners’ creativity designing Food Ed. lessons. Here are their stories:
Hannah Schiff of FRESHFARM FoodPrints in Washington, DC
“FRESHFARM FoodPrints is joining Pilot Light in our first ever “Food Education in Action Week!” The Pilot Light Food Education Standards are a key way that FoodPrints’ connects academics to food education. Wondering what this looks like in action…?
Students at Amidon Bowen learned that plants have families and made observational drawings of plants by the families they belong to. These students drew peppers and eggplants together because they both belong to the nightshade family.
In this lesson, “Plants and Their Families” students practice the Next Generation Science Standard of making observations to learn about the diversity of life AND the Pilot Light Food Education Standard of learning about the origins and sources of food.”
Amy Stamm, Pilot Light FAN Member & High School Teacher in Northampton, MA
“In our cooking class for the past two weeks, we focused on comfort food and learned about how eating comfort food (food that typically has a high fat content, food that ties into our cultural sense of belonging and memory, etc.) releases dopamine and helps our bodies to produce serotonin. We made mac and cheese, Italian wedding soup, and sweet potato pie. Students got to see one of the biggest sweet potatoes any of us had ever seen and compare it to a typical sweet potato. We used the huge sweet potato to make the pies. Few students had had sweet potato pie, and many were hesitant to try it at first, but once they did, many declared that they liked it way more than they thought they would. We learned about its Southern roots, which is why it’s less familiar to them than it may be to students who are growing up in the South.
In addition to classes, I participated this week on a panel at Reuse24, a Minnesota Reuse conference, where I presented the results of a grant our school received to transition from disposable lunch clamshells, silverware, cups, plates, bowls, and food storage containers to all reusable products, saving thousands and thousands of items from the landfill every year and helping us to reduce our food-related waste significantly.
In addition, I was asked to be a member of the food justice organization (and our food partner) Grow Food Northampton‘s Education Advisory Board, where we help GFN’s education manager strategize about how best to fulfill their mission of connecting our community to the land as a source of food, building food sovereignty, and creating a just food system. We had our first meeting on October 10th, and it was inspiring to connect with other food educators in our community and to really think through how to increase food access and education, and to build food justice together.”
Jennifer Bailey, current Pilot Light Fellow & 2nd Grade Teacher in Cambridge, NY
“We collaborated with Comfort Food Community and Alleged Farm in nearby towns. We gleaned 378 pounds of potatoes in under an hour. This work will benefit area food pantries. We need to sample fresh spuds ourselves, too…so we brought back some to cook in our crockpot at school! Our students LOVED this experience and are excited to eat fresh potatoes.”
Jennifer’s students said while gleaning potatoes:
“This is better than recess!”
“I want to be a farmer some day.”
“I love that we could help so many people.”
After hearing these inspiring Food Education stories from educators across the country, we knew we wanted to share them with a bigger audience. “Food Education has made such an impact on thousands of classrooms and communities nationwide,” said Taylor Meredith, Pilot Light Education Policy Advisor. “We created Food Education in Action Week as a way to shine a spotlight on the educators who are engaging their students in this important work; helping them understand their role within the food system and exploring how we can make our local foodways inclusive and equitable for all. Hopefully, sharing these stories will inspire others to bring Food Education to their classrooms, too!”
It’s not too late to join in on the action! Share your story today or anytime by tagging us @pilotlightchefs on Instagram, Facebook, or LinkedIn.