Fall 2

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

Through song, art, and cooking, Savoring Seaweed will familiarize students with an array of edible sea vegetables that have been nutritional mainstays in coastal cultures for centuries. A Japanese seaweed salad will be tasted, and a few key scientific findings will illustrate how seaweed keeps our oceans hospitable for the many wonderful sea creatures that call it home.

Conserving Food Creatively

Studies say one-third of our food goes uneaten.  Acknowledging that this is a problem to solve, we engage kids in Conserving Food Creatively through presentations and activities that show how making smoothies with brown bananas, giving a thumbs-up to misshapen produce, saving small amounts of snacks for later, and composting carrot peels (or not peeling at all!) are examples of simple, everyday ways we can all make a difference. Food tasting included.

What is Organic? 

Organic food is increasingly popular.  Why? In What is Organic? we will explore the methods some farmers use to grow their food that keep the health of our soil, water, and air at the center of their answer to this question.  Discovery-based discussion, theater and play, and fresh food samples bring these ideas to life.

Original Local

In Original Local, students discover the native foods and sustainable harvesting methods employed by the Dakota and Anishinaabe, the indigenous people of the land we call Minnesota.  An oral tale in the primary grades illuminates the traditional Ojibwe maple syrup harvest, while older students will make a useful tool they can bring to the grocery store to help identify which foods are local and in season. A maple treat closes out the lesson.

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

  • $135 for first lesson
  • $95 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.