Curriculum:
- Discuss food waste uses: cleaning products, teas, stock & broth, sauces, medicine, etc.
- Has anyone in the group made products from food scraps before? If so, what?
- How can we make some of our favorite things ourselves: alternative milk, oat flour, herbed salts
- Whole foods are whole medicines – discuss ways we can introduce more medicines into our diet
- Define processed foods (continue to reestablish that there is no such thing as good or bad foods)
- Discuss food accessibility and sovereignty – discuss focusing on a trauma-informed lens and guide conversation so kids mediate their own flow in conversation
- Growing our own food and similar forms of autonomous practice is powerful and a way we can unanimously, regardless of politics or other beliefs, rely on ourselves and more closely work with community
- Food comes prepared in deceiving ways (baby carrots, carrots without tops, pre shredded lettuce and cabbage) – why is that? (convenience, sense of “clean”) what are the benefits and downsides? – if we don’t see carrots with the tops on, how would we know they are tasty and useful?
- Make gnocchi for carrot top pesto
Our favorite thing to do at HOPE is use our hands. When we’re not digging in the dirt or cooking freshly harvested meals, we craft. Mindful mindlessness is incredibly important for nervous system regulation, creativity, and emotional processing. Having a task for your hands and purpose to your actions, whether its harvesting potatoes or painting rocks, gives individuals a sense of place. Conversations flows when our hands are given an activity to focus on. The displacement of anxiety encourages walls to break down, allowing kids to open up and engage. These activities also allow the connection between movement and emotional processing is one we deeply focus on, crafting is also simply a blast to do together. Having a variety of tasks to offer allows for constant but variating stimulation. Working in the garden and participating in group projects is a great way for kids to channel their restlessness in productive and rewarding energy.