Thursday, September 8, 2011

Anti-doom & gloom

Bodega Down Bronx from the Center for Urban Pedagogy on Vimeo.

I've been finding the newish Gilt Taste shop a bit too rich for my wallet, but the site recently featured three great stories on kids becoming thoughtful eaters & creators. It's a nice change from all the doom & gloom around kids' health & nutrition in the news these days.

Mighty Young Writers - about Philly nonprofit Mighty Writers using gardening to grow kids' creativity.

Gastronomy 101 about a class at NY's High School for Math, Science and Engineering that introduces teenagers to thinking about food systems. They take a field trip to a farm that offers educational programs to food professionals on the region's food, but these kids ask great questions and writer Tejal Rao captures their energy and spirit.

One kid used to give up his $5 weekly allowance in order to buy free-range birds once a month. Another doesn't get discouraged when her family won't eat the vegetarian soup she cooks up and just packs it for her lunches instead.

Finally, the video above was made by high school kids from the South Bronx in New Settlement's Bronx Helpers program, along with the Center for Urban Pedagogy. I love how the kids captured the catch-22 of supply & demand that float around the problem of food deserts - that on the one hand that bodegas/corner stores are merely supplying customer demand and the other that any existent or potential to grow the demand for healthy foods is blocked by the status quo.