Cocinamos! Dual-language learning and healthy flavors through family recipes

Website

www.agcchicago.org

How would you cultivate a deeper relationship with the community you’d like to serve?

The Academy for Global Citizenship is a Chicago Public Charter School, located on the underserved Southwest side of Chicago. Our innovative, holistic approach to education aims to foster systemic change and inspire the way society educates our future generations. We are producing a replicable model for learning in the 21st century, including the construction of a net-positive energy campus. Family and community engagement is a core pillar of our mission. Through expanded learning opportunities and family volunteerism we cultivate deep relationships with the social, emotional, and cultural contexts of our students, and extended learning community. We approach physical wellness through an all organic scratch-made food program. The current proposal will aim to integrate these components through a unique program during the school-day hours. We will invite family members to share cultural stories with the classrooms though a cross-cultural healthy cooking program.

How would you use the $1,000 to turn your idea into a reality?

The 1,000 grant will cover the material costs of the cross-cultural healthy cooking program for K-5th graders. Through recipes that have been passed down for generations, we will learn the unique stories and cultural traditions of where our families. We will celebrate a multicultural learning environment in a hands-on, project based capacity.

Last summer, we piloted the program. Esperanza, David’s mother, taught 30 students how to make mexican tortillas. The materials cost about $40.00. As a school of 300 students, 12 classrooms, $1,000 will cover 1-2 family members per classroom to be in the chef instructor/ storyteller role. At the end of the experience, we will hold an open market to share the tastes and stories with the rest of school.

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