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Culinary Conundrum: Are We Really What We Eat?
If indeed you are what you eat, eating well—eating nourishing food made with fresh, healthy ingredients—seems to be an answer of sorts. A number of community programs are addressing some of society’s problems through food.
A Better Life Through Food
Famous Bay Area chefs are lending their culinary expertise to programs like the San Francisco County Jail Program, which uses classes on nutrition and cooking to teach female inmates “to cook so they will have tips on how to eat healthier,” and “help them regain a sense of humanity and community.”
NextCourse, an organization that provides this and other life-changing educational programs, uses knowledge to effect social change. The group teaches youth in low-income communities how to shop for healthy and sustainable ingredients and prepare them quickly on a limited budget. Their Mission High School Education Program provides cooking demonstrations and seasonal fruit and vegetable taste testing for high school students, as well as comprehensive food-related classes for daycare providers.
For the Community
Noted Chef Alice Waters was instrumental in the creation of The Edible Schoolyard at the Martin Luther King, Jr. Middle School in Berkeley. Using principles similar to those of NextCourse, this program involves students in all aspects of the process from “seed to table.” Students tend their organic garden and prepare, serve, and eat the food. The goal of the program is to teach students to “how to integrate culture, history, language, ecology, biology, and other classroom-related subject areas into the preparation of food from their garden.”
For the Common Good
Through such small steps are revolutions begun. You can use a culinary degree not only to fulfill your ambition to become a chef, but also to benefit your planet. As a chef, you have the opportunity to support and foster these types of programs. You can make a difference in your own community through NextCourse or any number of programs that promote healthy food alternatives.
Judi Sandall is a technical writer and a regular Chef School Review columnist. She is a graduate of the State University of New York, with a BA in English Literature.
Sources:
NextCourse
SFGate.com
The Edible Schoolyard
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