Every Wednesday during last semester, the school has been wafted with salivating aroma of our Middle School students’ cooking course. Well, it’s actually more than just a cooking course; the students are taking an elective Seed to Table class, as a part of the Jalan-Jalan Middle School programme, integrating green studies with critical thinking, organisational skills, health and well-being.
True to its name, this Seed to Table programme gives students opportunity to learn how to grow their own food from seeds, to learn about nutrition, to plan their own healthy, balanced diet menu, and to cook their own healthy food. This programme aimed to make students to be more mindful of their eating habits, and impact of their habits to their own health and well-being.
It was a very exciting six weeks! In the first few weeks, they learned how to grow an edible garden from seeds, and to make their own compost from scratch.
After they are done learning about gardening (the “Seed” part), they proceeded to the “Table” part, where they learn about nutrition and healthy balanced diet, and how to organize and prepare their own food. And not only that, they also learned about the anthropology of food, by making dishes from different countries across the world, from Japan in Asia all the way to Mexico in South America. And they were free to chose what they wanted to cook, as long as it is healthy, and wow, it turns out healthy food can also be yummy and delicious!
“This [programme] is the only class that had gardening in it and I loved it. It was a little tiring when we had to go take the compost but that was still fun. I also loved making our own garden beds because I used to do it all the time when I was small – it reminded me a lot about how much work it actually takes to garden and now I feel grateful for the gardeners. What I enjoyed the most about this class was when the nutritionist, a Green School parent, came in and taught us lots of information on healthy diets and that it’s not always about taking things out but putting things in your daily foods. I was happy to know what’s good and what’s bad but also to just cooperate with others.” – Amane, Middle School student
This programme was led by Ibu Ida, our Indonesian teacher. She was very happy to see students enjoying their learning process throughout the programme. Not only learning about food and gardening, the students also learned many other soft skills, such as leadership and organizational skill through many activities conducted in the programme.
Learning the process it takes for food to go from seed to table certainly gives the students more appreciation towards what they eat, and in the end it will lead to healthier eating habits. And Green School believes that it is important to establish healthy habits early when it comes to food, cause you know what they say: good life starts with good food!