Building Food Security, One Child at a Time
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| Ayanfe Free demonstrates how to stir-fry delicious leafy greens for the young participants of the garden project. Photo: Shiloh Garden Project |
By Susan Carrara, Freida Nash, and Ayanfe Free
The young girl had gamely eaten home-grown carrots, squash, radishes, and beans, but she gazed skeptically at the stir-fried Swiss chard on the end of her fork. She had helped clean it, chop it, and watched as the adults cooked it – but she would have none of it.
Finally, after watching us serve ourselves, seeing us clearly enjoying the creamy texture and delicious taste, she tried the chard. A smile broke out on her formerly puckered up face as she pronounced it “good.”
Teaching children to grow, harvest, cook, and enjoy produce from
community gardens is part of the Strong Roots Children’s Gardening
Program, a collaboration between the Bountiful Cities Project (BCP) and
the Shiloh Community Association (SCA).
Because children are
receptive to cooking food from “their” gardens, and eager to
participate in creating and sampling a new dish, the program inculcates
more informed and inquisitive attitudes about food and the cycles of
nature through teaching, discussion, working in the garden, and
preparing food.
The program also works to increase Asheville communities’ food
security, i.e., having reliable access to healthful, affordable, and
culturally appropriate food. In 2008, the Shiloh Community Association
and the Bountiful Cities Project jointly hosted a discussion of food
security in “From the Ground to the Plate: the First Annual
African-American Sponsored Food Security Forum.”
This year’s forum, scheduled for October 10, will offer support
for people who are interested in growing food at their homes or in
community gardens and provide information about how to incorporate
fresh, organic, homegrown foods into meals – both preparing them and
making them affordable.
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| Freida Nash takes the children on a neighborhood exploration where they discover wild blackberries. Photo: Shiloh Garden Project |
Food security begins at the grassroots when people become
confident that they can survive and thrive. One way to empower and
inform adults is through the knowledge and enthusiasm of their
children.
The children participating in this summer’s Strong Roots program
became more aware of and curious about their food in many ways, and
they brought that enthusiasm home with them. They also brought home the
skills and confidence they learned about food preparation, and many
began to ask permission to take produce home to cook with their
families – a joint activity that leads to strong bonding and positive
communication between parents and children.
Among the highlights of the summer program, the children:
• discovered that “Sky Juice” (plain, natural water) is a delicious substitute for soda and sweet punch;
• learned about raising chickens and visited a neighbor’s backyard flock;
• found and tasted wild blackberries and other edible and medicinal native plants growing along the side of the road;
• monitored the growth of the community’s vegetables, and
• continually reminded the adults about the promised vegetable stir-fry from their garden produce.
Strong Roots taught the younger generation new ways of thinking
about their food – how it’s grown, cooked, and eaten as well as what it
represents. Their informed attitude and hands-on experience will
generate additional improvements in our community’s food security.
