Teaching Nutrition and Reducing Food Waste in LAUSD Classrooms

1. There is a disconnect between the classes taught at LAUSD on health, food security, and the importance of nutritious foods. For the Leaders in Sustainability Project, Daniela decided to complete her work at Berendo Middle School from which she collaborated with Middle School teacher Mr. Garcia to incorporate a lesson on nutrition into his lesson plan and syllabus. She led the lesson for Mr. Garcia’s class and sought out in-kind donations from the neighboring stores to receive the equipment necessary for the activity. The goals of the project were to teach students the importance and value of eating nutritious foods as well as how to make foods such as celery socially acceptable to consume. Daniela demonstrated leadership in sustainability by implementing a new component into Mr. Garcia syllabus and teaching him how to lead that lesson for future classes and how students can include more nutritious foods into their everyday diets in school and at home (social sustainability), giving a guide to Mr. Garcia on how he can receive in-kind donations from neighboring stores and organizations (economic sustainability), and teaching students how they can increase the shelf life of produce to reduce food waste (environmental sustainability). The measurable outcomes and impact of Daniela’s project were measured by a follow-up with Mr. Garcia and the students to know if the lesson was enjoyable, the likelihood of implementing the lesson in future classes and if the students will take what they learned in class and apply it at home. This effort was important to teach the students the importance of eating nutritious foods that are culturally and socially relevant, which can support their health and the health of those who live in their household to increase their intake of healthy food.

2. This effort was important to teach the students the importance of eating nutritious foods that are culturally and socially relevant, which can support their health and the health of those who live in their household to increase their intake of healthy food. I chose this particular effort because of personal connection to my relationship with food and seeing the food swamp that my community is located in, and wanted to give the opportunity for students to lear how they can have healthier eating habit sand incorporate more nutritious foods into their diets as well as into their family’s diets.

3. The goal of my project was for students to have a hands on approach on how to increase the social acceptability of eating healthy foods and the importance of eating a well-balanced diet. The goal was also to have students take home the celery sticks to show those living in their households what they learned in school and skills they can use at home to eat nutritious foods and increase their intake of fruits and vegetables. The intended measurable outputs and outcomes were for students to increase their intake of healthy foods in particular fruits and vegetables and to try the different methods to increase the shelf life of their vegetables at home, such as by storing celery sticks in a container with water in the fridge so it may stay fresh longer. I plan to measure the success of the project by following up with Mr. Garcia at the end of the academic school year and asking his feedback as well as the student’s feedback from the lesson and if they have applied any of those skills at home and taught others, as well as if the students have increased their consumption of fruits and vegetables, this can be measured through an anonymous survey. My project reached a low-income neighborhood that is identified as a community that is impacted by food insecurity and through the lesson plan, community and student engagement and using the school as a channel of communication my project helps advance the three pillars of sustainability: economic, social, and environmental sustainability.

4. The people I worked with for this project were Mr. Garcia, a Middle School teacher at Berendo Middle School, who shadowed how I led the lesson, and the neighboring Food 4 Less Grocery store located on W 18th Street for the in-kind donations such as the celery sticks, cups, food coloring, and water. There were also the students who engaged in a celery project and engaged with the lecture by participating in a round of jeopardy at the end of the lesson and sharing their experience.

5. For my project I am collaborated with Berendo Middle School teacher, Mr. Garcia, to incorporate a nutrition lesson plan into his syllabus. The project served to educate students about the importance of nutrition and eating healthy and nutritious foods and how that can be engaging and done from home, using the child as an agent of change in their home diet. Incorporating the nutrition lesson in Mr. Garcia Syllabus will help set the foundation for the lesson to be taught again in his future classes to teach students about the importance of nutrition and eating healthy foods. To better engage the students, I established a celery stick activity from which students learned how they can change the celery stalk color, this helped enrich the students understanding of how produce can be engaging and presented in a different manner that may be more appealing to them and their food preferences. I also taught the students different ways how they can increase the shelf life of certain vegetables such as celery sticks to reduce food waste. To get the materials required; cups, stalks of celery, and food coloring, I reached out to the neighboring Food 4 Less to receive an in-kind donation for the materials for the classroom activity. I then taught Mr. Garcia the skills and paperwork necessary to receive donations from stores and organizations. This project will be fundamental to social, economic, and environmental sustainability.

6. I plan on following up with Mr.Garcia at the end of the month to determine the current measurable outputs and outcomes from the lesson. An additional partnership that might be important is one of the Work-Based Learning (WBL) Coordinators from the LAUSD Career Technical Education (CTE) Pathways. This partnership can help incorporate the nutrition lesson into the CTE courses which can spread the importance and value of nutrition and in addition teach students sustainable farming/planting practices that can be done from home in a smaller setting.