Food Foundations

“This course has helped my child try new foods, expand his palate, [and] have more ownership/ interest in family work and meal making. We all learned how valuable it is to contend with and be aware of food history and relationships to current food activists and politics.” - Rachel, Stir The Pot parent

Course schedule: There will be multiple time slots for this course. Students will meet at the same time every week — for example, if you are placed in the Sunday group, you’ll meet for seven consecutive Sundays with the same group of students. If none of the time slots work for you, you can request a class recording instead and cook along with the video on your own time.

Course overview

Week 1: Food is Fun  In our first lesson, students will get to know each other and get comfortable in the kitchen. They will use all their senses to explore ingredients and practice describing how food tastes, smells, sounds, feels, and looks. Students will learn some essential knife, kitchen safety, and measuring skills as they prepare two recipes using the same ingredients in different ways: fresh tzatziki with pita chips and cucumber lemonade.

Week 2: Food is Growing Students will learn some basic agricultural literacy concepts, including the edible parts of a plant, food miles, and the food supply chain. They will think about different types of farms and about where the food in their local supermarket comes from. They will put this knowledge together, and practice layering textures and flavors, in a seasonal salad with warm croutons and creamy homemade dressing. They will learn firsthand about growing food from scraps with a simple kitchen experiment to regrow lettuce in water.

Week 3: Food is Power Students will be introduced to North American Indigenous foodways and the relationship of Indigenous cuisine to colonization. They will learn about the concept of food sovereignty, what it means for many communities, and how practicing traditional Indigenous cuisine and farming methods is a way for many to reclaim community power. They will learn about the “three sisters” of North American Indigenous cuisine (squash, beans, and corn) and practice their oven, stovetop, and seasoning skills as they make cheesy stuffed zucchini “boats” with black beans and corn.

Week 4: Food is Community Students will learn about how people show community care by feeding each other, and understand the importance of equitable food access. They will learn about the Black Panther Party’s Free Breakfast for School Children program, among other mutual aid projects, and how that affected our country’s policies about school food. They will learn about the role of soup kitchens, food pantries, and mutual aid groups, and their role in feeding people who have been prevented from buying fresh food. Students will practice measuring and stovetop skills as they prepare some nourishing pumpkin pancakes with apple cinnamon topping and whip up a batch of whole wheat pancake mix to deliver to a friend or neighbor.

Charles Bursey hands a plate of food to a child as part of the Black Panther Party's free breakfast program. Photo: Pirkle Jones and Ruth-Marion Baruch/PBS

Week 5: Food is Resistance Students will learn about the power of labor organizing in America, and the importance of the people who work in our food system: farm workers, food processors, cooks, and food service workers. They will hear about Dolores Huerta, Cesar Chavez, and the United Farm Workers union, who originated the phrase “Sí, se puede” and fought to change the way Latinx/Mexican/Xicanx farm workers were treated in the U.S. Students will use a building block of Mexican and Xicanx cuisine, masa harina, to prepare tacos on homemade corn tortillas with spiced roasted cauliflower.

Dolores Huerta, Delano CA Grape Strikes, 1965. Photo: Harvey Richards Media Archive, Paul Richards

Week 6: Food is Culture Students will talk about the importance of immigration to the ever-changing cuisine of the United States. They will learn a brief history of how Chinese immigrants adapted to difficult circumstances and created a new cuisine: American Chinese food. Students will discuss the role that immigrants continue to play in the American food system, from introducing new flavors and recipes to working crucial jobs in farms, factories, and restaurants. Students will learn about the importance of balancing textures and seasoning as they prepare a customizable American Chinese recipe: vegetable lo mein.

Chefs at work in the kitchen of a restaurant in New York's Chinatown, circa 1940. Photo: Weegee (Arthur Fellig)/International Center of Photography/Getty Images

Week 7: Food is Family Students will put all of their kitchen skills together in this final lesson when they prepare an entire dinner from scratch to share with their household and celebrate the end of the course. They will practice knife skills, cooking with heat, measuring, seasoning, and kitchen timing. The final menu will depend on the tastes and interests of the class.