Source: Lotus Children's Center

Based in Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia, Lotus Children’s Center provides shelter, food, and education for abused, orphaned and abandoned children. In addition to more traditional classroom education and vocational training, the Center operated a vegetarian cafe, Ananda, for four years. In a country where meat and dairy are the staples, Ananda promoted vegetarian cuisines to increase more variety and health into their diets, while exploring vegetarian foods based on international cuisines. The cafe provided financial support to the center and hands-on training for the children.

Not the case here. No POM product given. What I’m talking about is Morgan Spurlock’s film “POM Wonderful Presents: The Greatest Movie Ever Sold.”

For those of you who have not seen this yet, Morgan essentially shows how he was able to finance a movie about marketing by marketing to the marketers. There is nothing particularly new about this film nor is his trajectory entirely clear, but it is a film worth watching. What gets reaffirmed in the film (though not necessarily reassured) is that money talks. For many in the advertising industry, it’s a different lifestyle, a different mindset. It’s not about the health or well-being of consumers – it’s about the wealth and well-being of corporations. If the corporation bottom line also translates into positive outcomes for the consumer, that’s icing on the cake.

What was interesting about this film is so much of it was marketing about and for – what else? – food. And that comes as no surprise. Some of you may have read the NYTimes April 2011 article about how food companies, such as General Mills, are working on the rules of how to reach children in the Internet age – games, cellphone apps, and social media. In response, Marion Nestle noted that some policy changes to make it easier for parents to manage their children’s food choices are necessary.

What kind of policy changes will impact a food and beverage industry that spends hundreds of millions targeting children? Spurlock was able to buy – BUY – the naming rights to the town of Altoona in Pennsylvania for $25,000. For 60 days, the town will be named after the movie (the money goes to town’s police department). On the other hand, as seen in the film, the city of São Paolo in Brazil has banned all outdoor advertising. No ads on buses. No ads on bilboards. As you can imagine, a lot of marketers were mad.

Does marketing then need to be outright banned or can marketers regulate themselves to truthful and socially responsible advertising? If marketing dollars can buy an entire town and schools become the playground for food corporate “sponsors,” where does the line get drawn?

What made these companies sponsor this film that turned the magnifying glass on them? Check out the movie’s trailer here:

*I even tried to contact one of my favorite brands highlighted in this movie, Merrell, about something else, but no love from them. Not a peep. I still like their products, though.

In this day and age, many people are familiar and relatively comfortable with the concept of interracial dating, interracial marriage, and interracial children.

However, fewer people are familiar with intercultural relations.  Both my husband and I are brown in complexion; however, he is Eritrean and I am not.  The cultural differences and conflict we experience as a married couple is as complex as those experienced by an orthodox Jew married to a fundamental Christian.  A Chinese married to a Ghanaian.  An Alien married to a Homosapien.

Like most mothers of sons, mine was concerned that not only would I fail to meet her exceptional standards as a wife, but I would also fail to fully appreciate, embrace and understand her culture, language, religion and traditions.  If I couldn’t (or rather wouldn’t) envelope all things Eritrean, how would I genuinely love her son, but more importantly, how could I properly raise children of Eritrean descent and teach them about their extraordinary heritage and history?

Without minimizing the generational extension of my own heritage and traditions, I, to the surprise of my mother-in-law, have more than embraced the Eritrean culture.  Coincidentally, my embrace has less to do with my mother-in-law’s concerns or grievances and more to do with my children’s livelihood and future.

Perhaps by default, women, across all cultures and groups, tend to maintain, practice and teach the relevance of tradition, culture and language to children in the community.  I want to offer my children similar ‘lessons’.  With that said, I have little interest in helping my children to identify or root themselves in one particular category or existence.   Instead, I am greatly motivated to give their presence on earth some context and existentially, some momentum.  In doing so, I might ignite, in them, a vast appreciation for the history that came before them as well as illuminate their capacity to positively transform the story that lies in front of them.

As part of my efforts, I have learned to cook a handful of traditional Eritrean dishes, one of which is this delicious, comforting bread called Ambasha (Hambasha).  In essence, it is made similarly to pizza dough, but it generally contains spices (i.e. ginger, fenugreek, cloves) and sometimes, raisins.  Some people like to bake their bread, but I (as instructed by my mother-in-law) cook it in a large, non-stick pan on the stove top.  I added honey to give the dough some depth of flavor; however, you do not need to do this.  This recipe makes a wonderful snack to pack in a little one’s lunch box and/or with a cup of afternoon tea.

Buon appetito.

Ambasha
Serving:  1 loaf of bread
Adapted from Recipe Source

Ingredients:
1 packet of active dry yeast
¼ cup of warm water
1 tablespoon of raw honey
2 cups of white whole-wheat flour
2 cups of bread flour and more, if necessary
1 teaspoon of cinnamon
1 cup of raisins
2 teaspoons of salt
1 ¼ cup of warm water
¼ cup of raw honey
2 tablespoons of canola oil

Directions:

Dissolve 1 packet of yeast with ¼ cup of warm water and 1 tablespoon of honey.  Let sit for 10 minutes, or until yeast is foamy.

In the meantime, in a standing mixer with dough hook application, add the flours, cinnamon, raisins and salt.  Add the additional 1-¼ cup of warm water to the dissolved yeast.  Turn mixer on to low and slowly add the yeast/water mixture.  Mix for about 5 minutes, or until the dough starts to ball up and around the dough hook.  Add more flour if dough does not form a ball or add more water if the dough is too dry.  This dough should be slightly sticky.

Grease 1 large glass bowl with 1 tablespoon of canola oil.  Place the dough in the glass bowl and cover with saran wrap.  Let sit in a warm place for about 1 hour.

Using floured or greased hands spread the dough out on an ungreased pizza pan.  Score the top of the dough using a design of your choice (traditionally, spokes similar to that of a bicycle wheel is used).  Let sit for about 20 minutes.

Pre-heat a very large non-stick pan on the stove top.  Place the dough in the pan, over medium heat, and let cook on one side for about 5 minutes, or until golden brown.  Flip the dough over in the pan and allow the other side to cook for 5 minutes.  Turn the heat down to low and allow the bread to cook for another 5 minutes.

Remove from heat and let cool on a cooling rack.  Serve warm!

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At my toddler’s last visit to the allergist, I asked for some advice regarding keeping him safe (from foods he is allergic to) in restaurants.  He is getting more interested in the wait staff and what they bring to the table; less interested in my standard bag of snacks that we tote around with us everywhere.  The allergist’s suggestion was to continue bringing food for him, but find something really special in which to present the food.  So, my quest began.

I’ve settled on the Bento System 2.0 from Laptop Lunches.  It’s wonderful!  I love it and my child has great anticipation for what’s in each container.  The website describes the product as an American-style bento box designed to help you pack nutritious, eco-friendly lunches.  They are reusable, recyclable, dishwasher safe, and cut down on the amount of waste a typical sack lunch creates.

Source: Laptop Lunches

I continue to be blown away by all the photographs on the website in the menu library suggesting different fun ideas to put in the boxes.   If more people embrace this product, I can imagine the conversation in the school lunchrooms changing from “I’ll trade you my chips for your cookies” to “look how cool MY lunch is today!”

Awesome wooden food toys…fruit you can “cut” and ice cream that you can stack. Adults will have just as much fun as kids.

Alice writes about the garden on Growing Gardeners, and his is her newest update. Thanks, Alice, for all that you do!

I just created a presentation about the evolution of our school garden at George Watts Montessori. (I can’t wait to tell you why I was doing that, but that will have to wait for another post.)

To show what we’ve accomplished, I delved into the 5 biggest ways the garden has contributed to the students’ health and academics:

A proud grower of carrots

1. Kids are tasting more vegetables and fruits — and learning how to cook them. Tasting what’s growing in the garden is so essential, but it’s also a challenge to incorporate into the school day.

At schools like Martin Luther King, Jr. Middle School in Berkeley, Calif., they have kitchen and garden staff who work together in figuring out what’s ready to harvest and cook with children — and then do it during set-aside blocks of time. If you’re not lucky enough to have that arrangement, you have to fit in tastings somehow.

At our school, the tastings have happened as a school-wide “celebration” — like Harvest Feast or Green Smoothie Day — and also as an individual classroom activity. This year, for example, classrooms gathered lettuce to make salads for a mid-afternoon snack and harvested broccoli for a recipe a teacher brought in. Other classrooms nibble from the plants as they pass through the garden on their way to recess.

What can you make with spinach and strawberries (both grown in our garden)? Green smoothies!

This spring, we’ll be trying something new. More about that in a future post…

2. Kids move more. Outside in the garden, kids can stretch, soak up some sunshine vitamins, and have a sensorial experience, thanks to all the smells and textures in the garden.

But the biggest boon to students’ health? The .25-mile walking path that we installed as part of the garden expansion.

Many classes run the track before starting recess. It’s one way for teachers — and not just the P.E. coach — to help kids reach the daily recommended levels of physical activity, 60 minutes. A growing body of research shows the connection between physical activity and academic performance (not to mention the health benefits of exercise).

So anytime a teacher encourages a run around the track, she’s helping kids get smarter.

A class does a lap before recess begins.

3. It’s a learning lab. I’ve told you before about the garden-based curriculum we’re using at George Watts Montessori. But teachers don’t always need customized lessons to encourage learning outside. Journaling, measuring, making real-world observations, conducting experiments, gathering specimens — it’s all possible in a garden.

Students can witness what happens when they don’t water young seeds enough, or how slowly their compost heap decomposes. It’s like this Chinese proverb puts it: “Tell me and I’ll forget. Show me and I may remember. Involve me and I’ll understand.”

4. It brings food equity to our community. We have enough space in our garden now that we produce more than students can taste during the school day. So we’ve been able to think about how to share food.

Some weeks (with the help of the school’s counselor) we send home fresh vegetables to school families in need. Over the summer, everything we harvested was given away to families at a weekly Garden Giveaway Day at the school. At last spring’s Great Tomato Giveaway, every family who wanted one got a free potted tomato plant, along with a list of ways to cook and eat a tomato.

And recently, over winter break, 20 or so students and their families came to the garden to harvest spinach and carrots. We took loads of it to our downtown soup kitchen, Urban Ministries, so the chef could turn it into a meal.

5. It builds community. This means a lot of different things to me. It can mean a small group of parents coming together to work on the garden beds, or the entire school community coming together to celebrate Rootfest. Or it can point to the many connections our school has made via the garden.

So far, we’ve forged partnerships with urban gardening groups like Bountiful Backyards and SEEDS. We’ve worked closely with the nutritionists from DINE for LIFE who serve public schools. We’ve helped and been helped by Duke students who want to make a difference in Durham. We’ve collaborated with other teachers and parents throughout the public school system. We’ve received grants and in-kind donations from organizations like Blue Cross and Blue Shield of North Carolina Foundation, NC Beautiful, Whole Foods, Burt’s Bees, Cabot Farms and our own school alumni group Friends of Watts. (And our PTA continues to provide the critical financial and volunteer support that sustains this program.)

With all those people and organizations helping to lift up our students and lift up our school, we’ve accomplished a bazillion times more than we would have alone.

Sunflower

One of Beanie Baby’s new toys. I almost stole it from him.

Beanie Baby’s Zomppa debut!

Join the movement at Healthy Child Healthy World, a great website with lots of information and resources. Watch this Wake-Up Story and sign up!

A Wake-Up Story from Healthy Child Healthy World on Vimeo.

A fascinating article on The Globe and Mail about how adult food dislikes can often be linked to childhood trauma to check out.

I hate rice porridge. Why? I remember when I was 2 or 3, and my nanny tried shoving it my mouth. I gagged then. I gag now. She was trying to make me eat something I didn’t want.

Those of you who have been following also know I didn’t start eating veggies til I turned 30. Why? My parents put a separate plate of veggies for me every night. Every night, I’d wait it out for 2 hours. Eventually, everyone got bored and I’d hide it in the trash can. They were trying to make me eat something I didn’t want.

See a trend here?

Source: Sesame Workshop

So I was no doubt super stoked when I got an internship there during my doctoral work working with the educational research department. It was one of the best places I ever worked for, and there are many a times, I wish I still lived in Manhattan. Sesame Street really is a place that takes great care and thought into how children learn and engage and grow. So when Cookie Monster decided that cookies were a sometimes-food, I believed him.

Almost 25% of American children are food insecure. So Sesame Street is taking their advocacy for eating healthier a step further with “Food for Thought” about food insecurity and how to eat healthfully on a budget. Check it out.

And for those you Elmo-fans and White-House-chef-Sam-Kass fans: