NYC DOE Professional Development Online Synchronous Course
Intentional Appetites and Food Literacy - January 27th, 2024 1-2:30 PM EST

 
 

Our Class has Filled. Thank you for your interest!

Title: Intentional Appetites and Food Literacy: Using Olfactory & Taste Sensories to Teach Wellness and Literacy. 
Dates: Monday January 27th 2025 from 1 PM - 2:30 PM EST. This is a 1.5-hour synchronous online course open exclusively to Department of Education teachers, administrators and staff.
Facilitators: Jill Santopietro, founder of the Children’s Food Lab, and Meredith Hill-Patel, founder of RootEd, NYC DOE educational consultant and former principal in New York City.  
Audience: Target audience is teachers Grades K-8. All staff and administrators are welcome!
Description: This course brings together a series of practices that focus on building food literacy - while reinforcing reading and writing standards! - alongside wellness and mindfulness.  In this interactive workshop, participants will engage in hands-on activities to bring back to the classroom that integrate food, nutrition, wellness, mindfulness, and literacy. Participants will leave with ideas for grade-level readings and literacy lessons that connect to food and wellness, understanding of simple strategies to bring healthy food preparation into the classroom, and simple mindfulness practices that can be integrated across content areas. 

Course Objectives:

  • To consider the benefits of using mindful, wellness-based practices to teach food literacy

  • To introduce participants to high-quality wellness practices for mindful food literacy education that can be incorporated across disciplines

  • To discuss what equity considerations are important in utilizing mindfulness-based wellness practices around food and consider ways to ensure content addresses these considerations

  • To introduce methods for teaching thoughtful approaches to nutrition decision-making

  • To build tools for creating a full-body approach to food literacy

This course draws from practices utilized in programming for The Children’s Food Lab led by Jill Santopietro, including lessons around taste, smell, and mindful making, which have been implemented across dozens of youth audiences in school-based and after school programming. In addition, Meredith Hill-Patel’s mindfulness exercise reflects her mindful meditation training with the Boston Center for Contemplative Practice and mindfulness meditation practices around food she developed for her middle school students. Meredith and Jill draw from these first-hand experiences, as well as best practices for restorative wellness, throughout the course.

The target audience for this course is any NYC DOE educator interested in mindful wellness-based approaches for integrating literacy, food/nutrition literacy, and wellness in the classroom. 

About the Facilitators: 
Meredith Hill-Patel is the founder of RootEd, and has long offered professional learning as a teacher leader, assistant principal, and principal in New York City.  She has served over 75 educators in this capacity and reached countless more through workshops at conferences and citywide events. Specialties include: instructional design, interdisciplinary project-based curriculum, literacy, school gardening, food systems education, science education, engineering education, restorative practices, and arts education. Meredith currently works as a consultant for the Laurie M. Tisch Center for Food, Education, & Policy on integrating food and nutrition to literacy classrooms (including professional learning workshops that have currently reached over 100 educators) and consults with the New York City Department of Education to train a cohort of teachers, administrators, and other school staff around food-based education. 

Jill Santopietro is a food and nutrition educator, cooking instructor, food writer, and recipe developer. She is the founder and director of The Children’s FOOD LAB – offering fun, hands-on food arts and sciences discovery labs to New York and Massachusetts school children. Her work has been published in The New York Times, The New York Times Magazine, Bloomberg Pursuits, Epicurious.com and The Boston Globe, and she has worked on recipes for writers including Michael Pollan and Alex Guarneschelli. Prior to launching The Children’s FOOD LAB, Jill worked at The New York Times Magazine, where she co-created and hosted The New York Times’ "Kitchen 4B" video series. She is passionate about educating kids (and their families) and educators on all things food — how it grows, how it's processed, and the effects that has on us, our communities, and our environment. Jill has a master’s in food studies (gastronomy) from Boston University, is a member of the Tisch Food Center Food Ed Hub. www.jillsantopietro.com