Cinco De Mayo

Diggin' In With FoodCorps Fin - May 7th 2021

Happy (siete) de Mayo!

Hope you all had a splendid week, and that you’re feeling the embrace of May as warmly as I am! I’ve been loving the rainy days and big clouds rolling over the valley, and the warmth that still is new enough to surprise me. I wore shorts the other day!

For those of you gardening-inclined, our average last frost date in La Grande is May 17th. That’s just over a week away! So get your seeds and starts ready! In the edible garden at Central, we’ve already got a few things in the ground, including most recently, a long row of Walla Walla sweet onions!

Wednesday this week was National Bike/Walk to School Day, and I was so proud to see many bikes lined up on campus when I rolled up myself. Way to go, people! I hope to see us keeping it up as the weather only gets better.

In celebration of Cinco de Mayo this week, Third grade learned about many aspects of Mexican culture. It was my pleasure to bring some food into the classroom and make something that is true to both our Americanized “Tex-Mex” food and traditional Mexican cuisine: the tortilla. This simple yes endlessly useful bread has been made for thousands of years in the Americas, and is thus a wonderful item to highlight those deep roots that food has in culture. The kids did splendidly.

A few responses I heard:

“If school lunch was this good, I’d eat it every day!”

“I like that we made them with love.”

This wasn't the first time we highlighted hispanic folks in class; Earlier on this year we read aloud a story about Cesar Chavez and the United Farm Workers. I wanted them to understand the huge role the latinx community has played (and plays) in the food system, especially as agricultural workers. Paid or underpaid, documented or undocumented, unionized or not, without people picking in the fields and orchards, processing in factories, and hauling in the catch, we would not have many of the foods we enjoy on a daily basis. 

So today I'll share some words from a story book I really enjoyed sharing with the kids:

As we sit around the table

Let's give thanks as we are able

To all the folks we'll never meet

Who help provide this food we eat.

Sitting at this meal we share,

We are grateful and aware

Sending thanks upon the air

To those workers everywhere.

--Pat Brisson "Before We Eat: From Farm to Table"

I believe that humanizing the food system like this, putting faces to those helping hands, is the first step to making a more just food system that nourishes everyone. 

Have a lovely weekend friends,

Finley