Creative Ideas for your final presentations!

Check this website out and be inspired! 

http://www.salon.com/food/francis_lam/2011/03/30/durian_taste_test

Attention Explorers!

For this weeks blog assignment Julie and I would like you play around more with "The Meaning of Food" website.  Interact with TWO of the three sections (maybe the Food and Literature or the Edible School Yard) and in addition read the following article on the Western Diet (http://www.npr.org/2011/03/24/132745785/how-western-diets-are-making-the-world-sick?sc=fb&cc=fp).

Please make some comments on it for the "class blog" discussion!

See you on Thursday :)

The Meaning of Food discussion Q's

Happy Monday to you all!

We'd like to hear your thoughts on a few of the themes that were presented in the first few sections of the "Meaning of Food" PBS video series. 

What would you choose to be your last meal?  Why?

What have you discovered on the Meaning of Food website? 

See you Thursday!

A Fresh Start

Hello Friends,


Today we will be starting to watch the PBS mini series "The Meaning of Food."  There is a fun and interactive website that I'm including in this blog post.  Play around with the website and check out the neat features (but don't watch the videos because that's what we'll be doing in class).  


http://www.pbs.org/opb/meaningoffood/


I'll see you all in class!

Great opportunity to use what you've learned!

Julie and I had a student from last year's Dignitas section who sent us the following email.  I think it's rather applicable to our class' direction!

Dear student,

Last year I published Food Rules, a short book offering 64 rules for eating well. Food Rulesstruck a chord with many people, who found that it helped them navigate what has become a treacherous food environment, whether in the supermarket or restaurant.

Many of the rules were submitted by readers, and since publication I have received a number of excellent new ones.

So I’ve decided to publish an expanded edition, with additional rules and also illustrations, which the painter Maira Kalman has agreed to create. I hope you’ll consider contributing to the new book.

What are some of your food rules? I’ll pick my favorite three rules from within the Slow Food network and give those people signed copies of the book. Let me know your food rule here:

http://org2.democracyinaction.org/o/5986/p/salsa/web/questionnaire/public/?questionnaire_KEY=541

Thanks in advance for your help,

Michael Pollan

PS - the deadline for submission is February 27th. Don't forget to forward this email to your friends so they can share their food rules too!

Community Day reflection paper PROMPTS

Greetings!  I hope you all enjoyed the Community Day festivities.  It is such a neat thing that our school has put together and you should be proud of the work that you contributed.  The following is the prompt for the reflection paper and a link to a short video called "The Story of Stuff."  Please watch the video and write a short reflection on it (to post on the blog) afterward.  Let me know if you have questions about anything!

In the past couple of weeks, you have helped raise money and prepare food  for the College's Thanksgiving in the Spring event, watched "Waging a Living," and met with the executive director of the Damiano Center.  Now it's time to reflect on these activities. In a brief paper (3 pages or so) that you will turn in at next week's class, please respond to these questions:

1. What work did you do to contribute to Thanksgiving in the Spring? Describe your experience, how you felt about the work you were doing, who you shared the work with, etc.
Is the event something you support the College doing? What does the event contribute to those we feed? What does it contribute to those who feed them?

2. What did you know about people living in poverty before you saw "Waging a Living" and discussed poverty in Duluth with the executive director of the Damiano Center?
What do you know now? What are your reactions to the information presented?

3. Here are some quotes about individuals making a difference. Consider your experiences/opinions/feelings about service to others and respond to one of them.

"I am only one, but I am one.  I cannot do everything, but I can do something.  And I will not let what I cannot do interfere with what I can do."  ~Edward Everett Hale

"It is the greatest of all mistakes to do nothing because you can only do little - do what you can."  ~Sydney Smith

"Nobody made a greater mistake than he who did nothing because he could only do a little."  ~Edmund Burke

"If you can't feed a hundred people, then feed just one."  ~Mother Teresa

"Wherever a man turns he can find someone who needs him."  ~Albert Schweitzer






THE STORY OF STUFF:  http://storyofstuff.org/bottledwater/

Article for this week

Sorry I didn't post a place for you to post your answers from the NYtimes article.  If you haven't already, please post your response under this entry.  If you already have posted, copy and paste onto this entry.

Thanks and see you Thursday!