AMY - Spring Valley School

As Juliana mentioned, the class we visited at Spring Valley Middle School was no ordinary classroom, it had a variety of hands on activities in order to properly educate these students according to their interests and abilities. I was pleased to notice they had a small herb and petite veggie garden in a room labeled “office”. I love that the students had incorporated some food into their learning experience in the classroom.

Our presentation was extremely casual and relaxed, to better suit the students. We helped them decipher and read a map that Meghan found which visually showed which food can be grown where in British Columbia. We also fed them a snack, consisting of watermelon radish, white radish, Jerusalem artichoke, celeriac (or celery root) and small sweet apples. At first the students all gravitated towards the apples, because they were familiar. However, with some bribing we were able to get some of the kids to try the other vegetables as well. We talked about what these foods were, and why the kids hadn’t heard of them or seen them before.

One of my favourite conversations included what the kids currently liked to eat – their favourite foods. I helped them think about which foods in their diet now are or could be locally produced. Also about what food, such as McDonalds (a common favourite) is not grown within 100 miles.

The bistro was really interesting to see, as Juliana mentioned the students run a lunch time bistro right out of their school and they sell a huge variety of foods. The classroom teacher is trying hard to keep the food healthy, homemade, and if possible, local which is fantastic. When a couple of the students were making food such as burgers, we talked a bit about which of the ingredients used would have to be cut out if they were eating locally, and what they could add instead. Some of the students were shocked to realize how much food they consume isn’t local at all and how far it has to be shipped.

It was a stimulating experience talking to this classroom, and the teachers. I believe that the students learned something about what it means to eat local and why we were trying to raise awareness. However I think they learned the best from seeing and touching and eating the foods, as well as when we talked about which foods are or aren’t local. They are really interesting kids, and like Juliana mentioned we learned a lot from them as well. Such as the level of knowledge students their age have about food, and why food matters to them. When they showed us their bistro we were able to eat some quinoa salad they make which was delicious and had mint and herbs from their “office garden”!

Overall it was defiantly an experience to remember, and I am glad we were able to share our experience doing the 100 mile diet and raise some awareness about local food.