The Problem
At Jackson STEM Dual Language Academy we are lucky enough to have our own community pride garden! The Garden School Foundation has brought gardening and cooking classes to our students, enabling our students to experience nutrition, health, and environmental science in a unique setting. With this project, we hope to continue funding our cooking classes by providing them with the necessary healthy fruits and vegetables for their recipes. Currently, the Garden School Foundation has been utilizing local grocery stores within in our community, which is great! But today we are aiming to lessen our carbon footprint by thinking globally and acting locally. We wish to rethink where are food is coming from, whether it be local, in our backyards, or from distant countries. In the end, hoping to readily utilize our local farmer's markets, and understand the energy expenditure and travel needed to grow food.
Our Plan
Everyday our Jackson students are becoming master chefs in their cooking classes! They're learning how to read and complete recipes. Therefore, our project will dive deeply into one of our classroom's recipes and individually examine the ingredients. We will chart our ingredients, with corresponding columns listed and labeled as follows: "where the ingredient is from", "number of miles from Jackson", "Altadena farmer's market vendor", and "number of miles from market". First, the students will be asked to examine the ingredients, whether it be a bell pepper or a salt grinder, and find its' place of origin in the world. Once discovered, it will be charted and the distance it traveled to Jackson will be plotted on a world map and chart (quantitative) correspondingly. For example, if the salt was made in China, a string will be placed on the map linking China and Jackson Elementary. Next, the students will take another glance at the ingredients and figure out which ingredients we could possibly purchase from our local farmer's market vendor for our recipe. Again, this was charted, along with distance the produce traveled to market. Our aim is to show students that food comes from all around the world and travels far distances to reach our tables and plates. Rethinking how we eat is an important environmental step we wish to pass on to our students.
