The class begins next week.

Wow.

All this planning and hopeful idealism will be tested – by real people. I do not know who these people are, I have not met them; but I am excited to have anyone who wants to be there in my class. Even though the class has not begun, I’m already considering how I want to define “success” for the group. Maybe,

By the end of the course the participants will be more skilled in cooking, more critical in the grocery store, and more eager to grow as home cooks. Anyone is capable of becoming a food lover and/or a critical thinker. This class intends on providing both opportunities to its participants.

The final lesson of the class will coalesce around the themes of the previous weeks. By the last class the families will have the experience of planning and cooking a meal together. If even one of the homework challenges is met, these families will have cooked meals that include whole foods, maybe even seasonal foods! Just getting folks to consider these possibilities is a huge step in the right direction.

It is rather fitting that the last class will devote itself to meal planning. If people want to engage the topics of this class, they will have to continue cooking at home. Be it once a week or every day, learning about food and improving one’s kitchen skills is a long-term process. To bring a close to this 4-week course, I will introduce all the families to the concept and process of meal planning using the strategy guide I developed.

This final class will be rather straight forward. Currently, I plan on distributing the guide and reviewing it with the families. If there’s interest, I may attempt to plan a weekly menu with the whole class. That may be a good way of modeling how the guide works, as well as reinforcing the resourcefulness of everyone in the room. There’s the thought of having piles of cookbooks for participants to flip through. It would be great to have a collection of cooking magazines to give away to families. Hmm…

Ultimately I want this last session to show folks a way to make cooking affordable, healthy and easy (with a little planning.) Taking all the topics we’ve discussed and uncovered, bringing them all together into something palatable (pun intended), that is the goal.

And it can be met.

Related posts:

1. The Food Curriculum Project (part III) “Lesson Plan 1″
2. The Food Curriculum Project (part IV) “Lesson Plan 2″
3. Session 1 Complete!
4. The Food Curriculum Project (part V) “Lesson Plan 3″
5. The Food Curriculum Project (part II) “The Menu”

Tags: food literacy