Offered November – January
Smart Eating for You and the Planet
This unit gives students the unique opportunity to study a wide variety of foods along with kitchen, shopping, and growing practices that keep both our health and the health of the environment in mind.
Savoring Seaweed
Students get familiarized with a variety of sea vegetables that have been nutritional mainstays in coastal cultures for centuries. We consider some of the critical issues facing oceans today – acidification, habitat loss, plastic pollution – and discuss the role of seaweed in helping to maintain ocean health. We discuss the role that we play in keeping our oceans clean (even while living in Minnesota!), and learn about a new technology that turns seaweed into plastic alternatives.
Conserving Food Creatively
This lesson brings attention to the fact that over one-third of the food produced goes to waste. We acknowledge that this is a problem to solve and engage students in coming up with creative and simple solutions that we can all incorporate into our everyday lives. Students make a smoothie using brown bananas and other imperfect fruits and vegetables, give a thumbs-up to misshapen produce, learn about reducing food waste by saving leftovers, and understand how to compost what cannot be eaten.
Indigenous Conservation
We extend the ideas of reducing food waste from the previous lesson by looking to Indigenous wisdom around using the whole plant and animal, and consider how we can use traditional knowledge in our everyday lives. Students learn about the many uses of important plant and animal relatives, enjoy a zero-waste snack made with Indigenous ingredients, and make a beautiful piece of compostable art to take home.
Be a Climate Champion
This lesson recaps the learning from the first three lessons. Students brainstorm concrete solutions for using less plastic in our daily lives and make a snack that highlights creative ways to use food that otherwise may be trashed. Students decide what they can commit to doing in their classroom, at school, and at home to create positive change for the planet. We conclude our time together by creating a classroom community pledge board of the actions students will take going forward.
Invite us to your school
How can you invite Midwest Food Connection’s natural foods programs into your classroom? Simply contact us via e-mail! Or, you may call and our staff will help you tailor a lesson plan to your students’ needs.
Tell us
- What lesson (or group of lessons) you need.
- When you would like us to come to your classroom.
- How many classrooms are involved.
We schedule four to six weeks out and will take advance reservations as well.
Pricing
- $150 for first lesson
- $110 for each additional program taught on the same day
*Maximum booking: 35 students per program, 6 programs per day
*Additional mileage charges may apply to schools more than 25 miles from Minneapolis’ city center
Please contact us if you have any questions regarding Midwest Food Connection’s programs, curriculum, or fees. Our educators would be happy to assist you in planning your school’s natural foods program.