It’s happening. It’s really happening … A dream is born.

I hope the dramatic introduction brought you in as I have some fabulous news to share.

I am officially teaching a course on healthy eating and meal planning.

At a friend’s dinner party I met a gentleman who works for SUN Community Schools. We got to talking about substitute teaching and after giving him my business card, his eyes grew wide and a large smile appeared beneath them. (See card below for similar reaction)

"Eat to Your Ideals"

Well, it turned out that this guy was really interested in providing a class based on the ideas presented in the card. Once we started talking, I discussed this blog and the details of my menu consultations. I was able to explain that the consultation idea grew out of my love of education and my passion for meal planning and good food. As one might expect, the collaborative dreaming began and we both left the party excited for a new project.

During our first interaction that night, I learned more about SUN schools (as I had heard of them elsewhere before.) Tonight though, while actually reading their site, I found a succinct explanation of the organization.

SUN Community Schools (SUN CS) was founded by the City of Portland, OR and Multnomah County, OR in 1999 as a partnership of city, county, state, and schools. In 2004, SUN CS became part of the broader SUN Service System.The SUN Service System is an aligned system of care providing social and support services to youth, individuals and families that lead to educational success and self-sufficiency. Within the SUN Service System, SUN Community Schools are the school-based service delivery site for a comprehensive set of services including educational, enrichment, recreational, social and health services.

To translate: SUN provides programs and services to youth, individuals and families in the community. Connecting with 58 neighborhood schools in 6 school districts across Multnomah county, the SUN community schools are making an impact in the lives of others, from preschoolers to seniors.  One particularly wonderful feature of their work is their dedication to serving the community’s needs. As such, the classes offered through the SUN schools are developed and taught in response to the community’s interests and said needs.

Lucky for me, students are eager to learn how to cook.

(Enter Good Man Eats aka Jared Goodman.)

At this point in the story, I can only relay the most recent discussion we had this week: As of today, we are considering 2 4-week courses, each serving a maximum of 8 families. The schools participating are situated in the David Douglas School district, just outside the Portland metro boundaries. (I can’t state which schools because that is not yet determined.) The populations attending the class will span the world since common nationalities in the community range from Russian to Somali to Mexican. It is likely that some of the families will be immigrants and most will likely be from middle to low income households.

One of the many reasons this opportunity is amazing is because I will be able to teach food literacy to populations who want and need it most. An important intention underlying the course is to bring families together. Each 4-week class will be composed of 8 families – complete with parents/guardians and their children. At this point we are thinking the evening will last 2 and a half hours, ideally from 6-8:30p.m.. The first 60 minutes will be devoted to teaching food literacy. The second portion of the class will last (at most) 90 minutes. During this period families will be introduced to a recipe, and as a family, prep, cook, clean up and eat a meal together. This is the goal of course. If parents or families need to leave and take the food home that is totally fine too. Whether or not the family stays the whole 90 minutes, it is still an exercise in family bonding.

These details I have provided here explain the basic structure of the class. I am currently in the process of writing a menu of the 4 meals we will cook during the month. I also have to compile an ingredient list so that we can get some estimates of the cost of our food needs. Even more exciting, will be the writing of my first “food curriculum.” Unlike the one proposed on another page, this curriculum will not be discipline specific. Instead, the content focus will be solely on food – cooking, planning, shopping skills, intro to food politics, etc. With this being the introduction to the curriculum and the class on the blog, I hope to post weekly on ideas that come to mind.

There are so many curricular possibilities and all of them excite me. Stay tuned for the next update!

Related posts:

1. The Food Curriculum Project (part III) “Lesson Plan 1″
2. The Food Curriculum Project (part II) “The Menu”
3. A Future Food Project (or) An Idea is Born
4. The Food Curriculum Project (part VI) “Lesson Plan 4″
5. The Food Curriculum Project (part IV) “Lesson Plan 2″

Tags: cooking, food literacy, local food movement