The movie Rushmore is one of my favorites of all time. In it, Max Fischer, a student at a fictional private school, struggles to make it work both academically and romantically while simultaneously establishing an amazing array of clubs for his fellow students to enjoy. This movie also includes my favorite dinner scene of all time…by a long shot.
In the spirit of Max I started a student club at the school where I work called foodgroop. FoodGroop is a club where middle school students have an opportunity to learn, taste, and share experiences that are food related. It’s not a cooking club (although periodic tastings are planned), but rather a place for students to learn about culinary traditions and experience them first hand. By learning and writing about the food of our culture and the cultures of others, the kids will have a greater understanding of why we eat what we eat. The students will be encouraged to write and blog about their love of food…whether it’s meals that they have had or plan on having in the future. There will also be guest cooks that will demonstrate different dishes to hopefully encourage kids to follow their own culinary inspirations.
With that being said, I’m looking for any ideas from you guys that might make this club a smash since the first two years of the club weren’t particularly well attended. In fact my brother Matt and I got into a legitimately heated alcohol-fueled argument about this club a few years ago. Matt loved the idea but was disappointed in the effort I was putting into it to make it a success. You would have thought that foodgroop was a club for Black Lab pups to learn cooking rather than 13 year old kids the way he was yelling. Matt was right however, so I’m trying to make foodgroop as cool, fun, and delicious as possible.
I have two thoughts that may help get 13 year olds to a food club. The first being to make a running contest out of the meetings ie have the kids rate which dish is best and then at the end of the semester do some mini trip for all the kids that voted X number of times. That way, the kids may be more interested in going because they know there’s a prize at the end, but while you increase your attendance you’ll be exposing them to new foods as you go. My other thought is to recruit some of the more ‘popular’ kids at the school to join – unless things have changed with teens, they tend to follow what the cool kids do. I’m philiosphically slightly against my 2nd thought, but it seemed too obvious not to mention. Ps – nice seeing you again after all those Kindergarden/Muler shows. Small world!
what about field trips or visits from local farmers and cooks/restauranteurs/home cooks? Most kids have no idea where food comes from or how ingredients turn into food.
i don’t know if schools still do language clubs but you could do something with them to tie together various foods/cultures and languages.
Is there a jazz band? How about a cajun/creole themed event with the band?
what about iron chef type contests you could upload video to youtube. i hear the interwebs are big with kids these days
while he’s a bit of a twit, some of jamie oliver’s ideas might also be a good place to start.
For the blogs they write, pick the best ones, and post them as guest bloggers here!
One idea is to get parents or other teachers with ethnic backgrounds involved. Ask them to talk about their families food traditions, and maybe bring in some ethnic food for the kids to try. This could be anything from Chinese, Indian, Latin America, German, Spanish, Greek, etc.
Really great ideas guys…thanks for the help!!
How about taking that Iron Chefs idea and extending it to the faculty? There are usually a few teachers that the students are irresistably drawn to. Schedule a throw down between them, or a students vs. teachers throw down.
Love the idea – wish you were teaching in my kids’ school district! They would join. They’re definitely future foodies.