Name: Jennifer Trapani
Title: Food Science Coordinator
Organization: Burlington School District
Location: Burlington, Vermont
What do you do at your organization?
I am the Food Science Coordinator for Burlington School District. I have the privilege of working with students in our District to teach garden, cooking, and nutrition based education.
What motivates you to lead cooking programs?
In my role, I am uniquely positioned to offer students opportunities to learn in hands-on, experiential ways with a shared goal of improving student relationships with their learning through multiple modalities. This work motivates me deeply because I am able to guide students as they learn where their food comes from, how to nurture and care for it, and how to turn that produce into something that can fill their belly and nourish their creativity. When students actively participate in the process of cooking and sharing a bite to eat with their peers, they are infinitely more motivated to try that first bite and to offer their honest feedback and opinions about it. I believe that by increasing opportunities for student voice and choice, we are setting students up for success because they learn that their perspectives matter.
Do you have a favorite quote from a program participant or a story from a lesson you’ve led that you want to share?
I was watching some of my students perform in their school musical and got chatting with the person sitting next to me during intermission. They asked me if I had a student in the production and I told them, no, but that I was there supporting some of my students. They asked me what I taught and before I could finish explaining my role they exclaimed, “Wait, YOU’RE MS. JEN WITH THE CARROT SALAD!?” I laughed out loud, and it for sure made my heart grow three sizes that afternoon. They mentioned that their student brought the recipe home and demanded they go to the store to get the ingredients to make it. I said “sorry not sorry?” in response and they laughed saying their kid had never eaten more carrots in their life. 🙂
What is your favorite recipe to teach with the Charlie Cart? Tell us why you love it, how you learned to make it and why it’s important to you!
It honestly has to be the carrot salad. It is such a dynamic recipe that can be easily differentiated based on grade level with younger students helping to prep 1-2 components and older students taking full ownership of the recipe. Students love using the vegetable peelers to make carrot “ribbons,” and this recipe is a great way to pair fresh ingredients with canned plant-based protein (chickpeas). I was looking for inspiration with our Harvest of the Month item (carrot) and found Kathryne Taylor’s (Cookie + Kate) French Carrot Salad recipe online. I adapted it slightly to allow for safer tools (vegetable peeler vs. box grater) and swapped orange carrots for rainbow carrots to make it more fun and kid-appealing. It’s a fun way to introduce students to the spice cumin as well.
Final words of wisdom?
I believe that education must encompass and value the whole student. For our practice to be successful, it is necessary to understand the intersectionality of curricular standards, school nutrition, and social and emotional wellbeing. The hands-on, experiential nature of garden, cooking, and nutrition-based education is foundational and offers students ways to creatively explore the world around them and how they relate to it. In this way, students have a better understanding of where food comes from and offers them opportunities to plant, tend, nurture, harvest, taste, cook, and enjoy fresh fruits and vegetables in a hyper-local environment alongside their peers.
