What’s Food Got to Do With It?

After many years of educating young adults with diverse learning disabilities and other special needs about the world of work,Carole Noveck, the author, found a new, more holistic way to connect with them. She began to teach students to plan, prepare, and serve nutritious and tasty meals. Cooking and eating together revealed a new perspective on the students and their lives that had been difficult to discern in any other class. really began to learn about these individuals and their world. Carole recognized that the unique setting of the kitchen, and the power of food to much more than just provide nutrition, and energy. The students that share this culinary adventure with her are enrolled in The Threshold Program at Lesley University in Cambridge, Massachusetts. This program one of the only programs in the world that serves the population of high school graduates who, because of their complex needs, cannot succeed at a typical degree granting four-year college. In two or three years, students with learning challenges, in some cases combined with cerebral palsy, dyslexia, Asperger’s syndrome, seizure disorders and many other complicated and disabling conditions, develop vocational and independent living skills. The goal of Threshold is to prepare these young people to live and work independently post-graduation. Students from across the United States and many other countries enroll in Threshold both to learn the skills it offers and to experience life on a college campus. But it is only in the Food Lab that the students, as they cook together, have the opportunity to share information about themselves, their friends, and their families in a classroom setting. While they learn how to prepare recipes of their choice, the instructor, gathers insight into their learning styles, family dynamics, and peer interactive abilities. All of the recipes included in this book have been introduced, prepared and sampled by the students. They are relatively simple to prepare, inexpensive and quick to prepare. These students and other young adults embarking on their more independent adult lives can imagine eating and enjoying these foods. Each recipe is analyzed for its value on the food pyramid; food allergies and ethnic or religious food prohibitions are also considered. Because nutrition and health awareness are much in the public eye and frequently discussed, students also have the opportunity to connect with current events when they see articles in the press and on-line referring to the issues that we study. A wide variety of issues both personal and cultural become evident as we cook, serve and clean up each week. These issues my include: motivation; learned helplessness; islands of competence; leadership; family traditions and ethnic histories; respect for differences; and health factors. These and other topics of public interest today are discussed while we feast on the meal we have prepared together. Learning about cooking also involves many basic life skills: reading; arithmetic; measurement; planning; making and following decisions and teamwork. Therefore, this book can serve as a basic guide for students, their families and educators on re-introducing home education back into the classroom. The possibility of returning to the old traditions of teaching “home economics” as part of the academic curriculum for each student might be reconsidered. Particularly for adolescents, of middle school age, learning more about their own and their classmates life histories through food, might help ease their transitions into young adulthood. Many of the recipes selected by my students have been traditional family recipes, like Sicilian Tomatoes and Eggs. While describing this recipe and sharing its technique, the young woman, taught to cook, by her grandmother, became a more assertive and confident person. She demonstrated the unusual and delicious dish, which taught all the participants, (including the instructor), a new and interesting way to prepare eggs. Her pride and self-esteem visibly blossomed as we cooked and then tasted the dish. Another student, who tended to be very quiet, rarely talked about her family history. Sharing her recipe for Russian Summer Soup, she introduced us to a part of her character that we had never known. The yummy Lithuanian Crumb Cake recipe, which has become one of my favorite desserts, came with the stories of the sacrifices the grandmother of one of the students had made both in the kitchen and in her whole life. The memories that she told him were shared and were reminiscent of the histories of many of our ancestors. The flavors, smells, culinary hints, and life stories that accompanied each recipe were as significant as the recipes themselves. What a wonderful way for students to get in touch with their backgrounds, while they learned basic life skills. Sharing recipes and learning to cook empowered these students. Carole believes that many other people can benefit from learning about food, nutrition, values, and heritage, as they enjoy working and eating together. This book can serve as a primer for the investigation of a life history, while one of man’s most basic needs is served.