SWA 12

“A Healthy Constitution” by Anna Walters stresses the importance of serving healthy meals in schools. She begins by pointing out how overweight the students are at a school where they are served processed food. However at a school in Wisconsin where the foods are fresh, locally grown foods, the students are healthier and perform better in school. Serving healthy meals is such a quick and easy fix to the problems of health and educational problems. Keeping kids at this school healthy is making them sick less often, while still enjoying and looking forward to their school meals. She brings up the topic of edible education which is bringing the topics of healthy meals, food, gardening etc. into the class room to teach kids where the food comes from and how it is produced. By getting students involved in the preparation of these meals helps them learn responsibility and can feel a sense of achievement when they create delicious meals on their own. Through doing this students can learn values of citizenship, become involved in their communities and with their peers in positive ways. She interviewed kids who spoke of their experiences saying how much they enjoyed being apart of something that they could call their own. Kids are seeing how we depend on farmers for our food, and farmers depend on us to consume, aspects that are necessary for the survival of our nation. She points out how schools should be a place where kids are educated on this process and should become involved. These aspects of our culture, gardens to the kitchens are apart of the values at make up our democracy and Walters believes we need to bring our children to the table and teach them the importance of edible education.

According to Walters food can be used “to teach values that are central to democracy” by connecting kids to our land in ways they never have been before. Land and farming are a huge part of our society that children today know very little about. By learning about where our food comes from and how it is produced we can participate in our communities in more meaningful ways. Walters links healthy meals and learning by relating the obligations that come along with creating your own meals from preparation to cleaning it creates a sense of responsibility. And learning how to cook and follow instructions is a tactic that takes practice and can end up being very beneficial.