This is great!!!
The video and book of What’s On Your Plate show the earnest, honest and vibrant inquiry of two young girls who- once captured by some GREAT TASTING cherry tomotoes during a vacation to Ohio- set out to discover the food system of their neighborhood in Lower Manhattan.
Since the two girls live in Manhattan, they are exposed to and appreciate a broad diveristy of cultures, including a wide variety of foods and flavors (and music!). They are not hood-winked by some pastoral, romantic, dreamlike ideal. They are children of a vibrant metropolis and bring to their pursuit energy, rigor, joy AND irony.
Their inquiry is smart, rigorous, scientific, and playful — and deserves our attention.
Interested- contact the producers at Aubin Pictures. They have a CD of the film and book (of the same title) that is full of tools and activities so your children can explore their inquiry in an equally smart, artistic and valuable way.
Here’s the trailer: watch?v=XRkaKBvYPZw
Here’s an entertaining and eventful way to make explore that well-worn question;
John Coy (writer) with Caroly Fisher (pictures) have produced a fabulous book that dazzlingly integrates science, recycling, intergenerational relations,divorce, poetry, ART!…and…. a recipe.
Feeding Friendsies, written and illustrated by Suzanne Bloom is indeed friendly, and charming. The text, accompanied by delightful watercolor illustrations, take the reader through a series of earnest and imaginary “meals” concocted by a bunch of children fully engaged with simply playing outside. Bugs and dirt, and sun and leaves, and twigs and things get mixed together and offered up as feasts for bunnies, bears and lambs. Their hard work of all that play is rewarded with a feast of their own.
Honey Cookies, by Meredith Hooper and illustrated by Alison Bartlett is a delightful and charming way to show “where our food comes from” and not be looking at farmers digging in the dirt, animals chomping on grass, or cheesemakers pouring sweet. Instead, Honey Cookies deconstructs the basics of baking; sugar, butter, flour, eggs, cinnamon, honey and the power of loving hands mixing it all together.
Nutrition can often take over a conversation about food, particularly one about what children are eating.Keeping the spotlight on nutrition tends to marginalize the value of taste – which, far from a naughty pleasure, is core to embracing a healthy relationship to food and food culture. Though young taste buds tend to favor sweet, we know that exposing them to a range of tastes and flavors helps create a healthy palate, makes one a better guest at a dinner table later in life, and sows the seeds for respecting the personal and cultural habits of others.
