The 2024-25 Food Education Fellowship has officially begun! We at Pilot Light are excited to announce that 26 educators have joined our 6th annual Fellowship. This year-long professional development and peer learning opportunity is our cornerstone program, and we cannot wait to see how this year’s cohort of Fellows develops Food Education leadership in their school communities during the 2024-25 school year.
About the Fellows
Since 2020, we have taken advantage of virtual learning environments to expand the Food Education Fellowship to reach educators across the country. We are thrilled to welcome our largest ever Fellowship cohort, with educators from 11 different states:
- 10 educators in Chicago and Illinois
- 3 in the Midwest outside of Illinois (2 in Indiana, 1 Michigan)
- 6 in New York (3 in NYC, 3 in Upstate and Central New York as part of our partnership with SOFSA through the USDA’s Farm to School Grant)
- 4 across the East Coast outside of NY – 1 Delaware, 1 Massachusetts, 1 Pennsylvania, 1 Virginia
- 3 across the West and South – 1 Arizona, 1 Georgia, 1 Oklahoma
In addition to geographic diversity of this year’s Fellows, we are excited to see a variety of grade levels and subject areas present in this year’s classrooms:
You can learn more about each Fellow by browsing their bios here!
2024-25 Fellowship Kicks Off at Summer Institute
Every year, Fellows begin their time with Pilot Light at Summer Institute, a 2-day online onboarding and kickoff event. This year, in addition to learning about the Food Education Standards and other Pilot Light best practices, Fellows heard from multiple speakers to inform their planning and approach to Food Education.
First, Fellows heard from owner of The Evolved Network Chef Sebastian White about how Food Education comes alive in the classroom. This discussion was informed by Sebastian’s extensive expertise in how food can be used to fuel the psychological development of students and how educators can leverage Food Education to build relationships and empower students of all ages.
2024-25 Food Education Fellows also had the chance to hear from a member of the Fellowship Alumni Network (FAN) Joanna Balla-Elliott, a 5th and 6th grade Humanities teacher at Chicago Jesuit Academy. The opportunity to learn from a peer who has recently completed the Fellowship offered invaluable insight for this year’s Fellows.
September Meeting – Food Connects Us
This week, Fellows met for the first time since last month’s Summer Institute to dig into the first Food Education Standard – Food Connects Us To Each Other.
The guest speaker for this session was Kandace Stallings, a consultant at Invested Consulting Firm based in Chicago with experience in Chicago Public Schools as a counselor/specialist in self-awareness and interpersonal relationship education. Kandace led a thoughtful discussion on how food can be used in the classroom as a cultural bridge.
Fellows shared about foods that were important to their family, identity, or culture. Kandace then discussed the importance of fostering students’ self-awareness, interpersonal relationships, and decision-making skills and how food can be used to creatively teach these competencies. Fellows appreciated the opportunity to discuss the different cultural, generational, and geographic influences on food behaviors and choices that influence both themselves and their students. Finally, Fellows shared their own experience with how food can help build trust in their relationships with their students, which helps lay the foundation of a productive classroom.
Finally, Alex DeSorbo-Quinn, Pilot Light’s Executive Director joined the first official PD session to discuss Pilot Light’s history and offer her support to the new cohort on behalf of the entire organization. “You are what is fueling our team’s flickering flame,” Alex shared with the 2024-25 Fellowship cohort – we couldn’t have said it better ourselves!