EduCulture Leverages Local Community as Curriculum for Students

EduCulture has collaborated with Town & Country Market on Bainbridge Island to develop field classes to enrich and enhance food studies for local Bainbridge High School students.  Lessons were developed for the Global Citizenship course, a required senior elective with a third of the curriculum focusing on farming and food, and Advanced Foods, a Career and Technical Education course.

One lesson helps students understand the anatomy of a grocery store through the variety of forms that one food group can take, i.e. fresh (conventional, organic), packaged, prepared, frozen, dried, grab & go. In small groups, students are assigned one of three types of food to survey and study: Kale, Coffee and Pizza.  They record a set of data for each form of food, from price, origin, packaging, and ingredients. After compiling their date, students compare and contrast these various forms to arrive at conclusions regarding best value for money, healthiest choice, best quality, and most ecologically sustainable.

In another lesson, students learn about meal sourcing at the grocery store.  In small groups, students are given an imaginary budget to source two versions of an imaginary group meal (appetizer, main course, dessert) they might eat as college students.  One version is sourced to be prepared from scratch with whole food ingredients.  The second meal is a version sourced from pre-packaged, ready-made items.  Student record their menus for the meals, then analyze their selections based on healthiest choices, best value for money, most enjoyable to prepare and most ecologically sustainable.

We also created a field class for the Global Citizenship curriculum at Middlefield Farm, owned by Town & Country Market and managed by local farmer Brian MacWhorter, where students examine a unique program in local food production for a local grocery store.

The BISD edible education initiative has helped to bridge classroom and community towards a more lived curriculum for local high school students. One that that localizes their global studies in farming and food, and helps prepare these young adults to navigate their food communities as college students.

Thank you to our community partner Town & Country Market for hosting Bainbridge High School classes, and making their store a classroom for local students, especially to Guest Instructor, Vern Nakata, and store manager Rick Pedersen.  Our gratitude to Bainbridge Schools Foundation for funding that made it possible to develop the educational architecture to deliver these lessons for Bainbridge Island School District’s Edible Education Initiative.