LEARN

Food And Me

Purpose
To enable us to explore the fact that we need a variety of foods to stay healthy and that too much or too little food can lead to ill health.

Preparation
Participants need to have read the information in Figure 8.2 and to have studied the food chart. Note. It needs to be pointed out that the examples in the latter are somewhat Eurocentric.

Procedure
Participants make a montage of food labels and/or pictures for each of the different food groups. An examination of the weekly school meals menu can be undertaken. Participants survey the most popular choices over a week and see how the selections compare with an ideal lunch menu that the class might devise. Younger age groups can begin by finding out about the different foods in each of the groups. Library research can be done to find out more about the diseases in the two lists.

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Food As A Basic Need

Purpose
To show that food is something essential for survival and one of our most basic needs. To differentiate between needs and wants, and to lay the foundation for understanding what is meant by human rights. To consider needs and wants on a global scale and to empathise with others.

Preparation
A magazine photograph or postcard of a deserted tropical island is needed, and, for each pair of participants, a copy of the story of Ameerul (Figure 8.3). Small cards with examples of the world's wants and needs already written on them (optional).

Procedure
Ask participants to imagine that they are going to live on a deserted tropical island. In co-operation with a partner, Participants list ten items they would take with them. Then participants are asked to sort out and list them in separate boxes entitled 'Our needs' and 'Our wants'.

Participants are then set the more difficult of differentiating between what the world like to have, using a previously prepared list of items such as: peace, coca-cola, advanced technology, clean air, water, education, air travel, food, schools, trees, television, music, etc. Alternatively the class can brainstorm a list for themselves and in pairs or small groups can categorise the items under the two headings 'The world's needs' and 'The world's wants'. If the items on the list have been written on small cards previously by the teacher, these cards can be sorted into 'Wants' and 'Needs' piles. After the class as a whole has had an opportunity to compare views, it would be valuable to try and arrive at an agreed list. Participants could then be asked to consider whether their lists of world needs would be different from a similar list drawn up by children in, say, Ethiopia, the USSR or USA.

Next, participants read the story of Ameerul (below) and in small groups consider questions such as the following:

  1. What do you think Ameerul's basic needs are? List them.
  2. Is there a difference between his needs and yours? Why?
  3. What do you feel about the fact that some people have enough to eat while others go hungry?
  4. Do you think that people in this country have difficulties in feeding their families properly?

Note: Food should have appeared in all the Needs sections of these exercises. Its necessity for survival can help explain the concept of a basic need. Understanding that basic needs are different from human wants and are necessary for survival lays the foundation for the concept of human rights.

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The Story of Ameerul

Some people never have the luxury of choosing between a need and a want. Their survival can depend on fulfilling their main needs - their basic needs. The story of Ameerul, from Bangladesh, is the story of one such person.

'Today I've gone to three villages looking for work', Ameerul, a landless labourer, told us one morning, 'I found nothing. No work means no rice. Yesterday I couldn't find work, and I ate nothing all day. Finally in the afternoon I ripped three bamboo poles out of the wall of my house, chopped them up and sold them in town as firewood. With the money, I bought three pounds of wheat flour. I had half a taka left over, so I bought a cup of tea and a handful of puffed rice. Last night we ate the flour. I have six mouths to feed. Even when I find work, I only earn two pounds of rice and one taka.

Two pounds of rice won't even fill the stomachs of two people: for six it's nothing. And what can you buy today with one taka? Each day I ask myself: How will I live? How will my children live?'

Going Further
Discussion can then lead on to other basic needs such as shelter, clothing, clean water, health care, education. These could be explored as themes in themselves or elaborated through a range of curricular areas. For example, older Participants could be introduced to the use of statistics, whereas younger Participants might find the use of stories and plays more appropriate.

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Food As A Human Right

Purpose
To stimulate discussion about the concept of human rights and to introduce the notion of food as a basic human right.

Preparation
Participants, in pairs, need copies of the stories of Francisco and Victoria (below). They should also have located Guatemala and the USA on a world map.

Procedure
Participants read through the two case studies and then work in small groups to consider the following questions:

  • What are the main differences between the lives of rich people and poor people in Guatemala?
  • Why do you think the ranch owner called the soldiers?
  • Where do you think the meat from the cattle ranch is sent to? Note: It is important to make the link between Central America and beef-burgers here.)
  • Why is who owns the land so important?
  • How do you think rich people in the USA probably live?
  • Were you surprised that Victoria lives in the USA? Why?
  • What can Francisco, Victoria, or other people, do to improve situations like these?
  • What do Francisco and Victoria have in common?

Note: Participants could choose two or three of these questions to discuss, or, over a period of time, work on all of them. It makes a good exercise in collaboration to have answers formulated by the whole group as a result of their discussion. There is plenty of scope for further research here.

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Francisco In Guatemala

'My name is Francisco. I live in Guatemala, a fertile country in Central America (about the size of England and Wales). Long ago our ancestors, the Mayan Indians, owned all of the land, but today only 2% of the people own more than 70% of the land. These powerful rich landowners own the best land and we poor folk live on the thin and rocky soils of the mountain slopes. Our plot is big enough to grow maize and beans to last about two months. To survive for the rest of the year mama and I work on a ranch or hacienda. Between us we earn £6 a week, but each month it is harder to buy food for us all. The only time we have enough to eat is when we harvest our plot.

I think maybe I'm thirteen and I'm the oldest child in our family. I stopped going to school when they took my father away. I'm proud to be helping my brothers and sisters stay at school learning things that might get them a job somewhere. School is one of the few ways poor people like us can improve our situation.

My dad and other men from our village tried to improve our situation. One evening they went to a swampy part of the ranch which was never used. The cattle never went there, nobody went there. It was a good place to grow rice and vegetables so that we might have some extra food and nourishment. The ranch owner said nothing at the time, but one night an army truck came into the village and the soldiers called people into the square. All the men had to get into the back of the truck. Two men struggled and one broke free but the soldiers shot him. His wife and little daughter ran to the body and they were shot as well... a few days later my father's body was found along with the other men. They had been killed by the soldiers in an old quarry. The village was full of crying, and life has been more difficult without the men to help.

I never go to the swampy bit at the end of the ranch, but often walking over the grassland from one water tank to another filling tanks for cattle I think of the food you could grow there for people'.

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Victoria in the USA

Victoria Sharpe (62 years) lost her job some years ago. Her unemployment benefit has run out. She wants to work but nobody will employ her.

'I've had no income and I've paid no rent for many months. My landlord let me stay. He felt sorry fro me because I had no money. The Friday before Christmas he gave me ten dollars. For days I had had nothing but water. I knew I needed food; I tried to go out but I was too weak to walk to the store. I felt as if I was dying. I saw the postman and told him I thought I was starving. He brought me food and then he made some phone calls and that's when they began delivering these lunches. But I had already lost so much weight that five meals a week was not enough to keep me going.'

Why Are People Hungry?

Purpose
To get participants to think about some of the different reasons for many people not having enough to eat and to dispel some of the common myths about hunger.

Preparation
Each child needs a copy of the Questionnaire and, subsequently, the information sheet 'Myths and comments'.

Procedure
Individually Participants complete the questionnaire. They then compare their answers with others in a small group. What are the similarities and differences? The whole class can compile a table of responses. In small groups Participants read the 'Myths and comments' sheet. How do these 'answers' differ from the ones arising out of the questionnaire? Which comments are most surprising to the group? Each group reports its most/least surprising comment to the other groups and explains its reason fro this. How does this information help the children re-evaluate their answers to sections 5 and 6 in the questionnaire? Participants can devise a questionnaire of their own to find out other people's opinions. This could be specified for (a) a younger class; (b) for parents. How will the class; let their chosen audience know the facts that they themselves have learnt? Assemblies, pictures, posters, plays, could all be used here.

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Hunger