“Remi the Rat’s Kitchen” Cook-iculum

This year’s elementary curriculum focuses on cooking and (more importantly) tasting our way through the different experiences and culinary customs of the world’s diverse religions. The main focus is the physically interactive component, where our students cook their own versions of famous global dishes, although there is also a short reading, and a class-wide focus discussion that happens in tandem with all the peeling, chopping, flour-ing, and devouring. So far, we’ve made mango lassis, and discussed the Holi festival, sopapillas to introduce the topic of ancestors and the Spanish day of the dead, and even humbler squash and pea soups to discuss the changing of seasons (and people) along with our transcendentalist, northeastern roots. These dishes and so many more, are giving our children a taste of pluralism, of what love and understanding mean at a global scale, and equally important, a local one. At the end of every class, our students demand we make and take the excess to the neighboring classes to share the love.

This is what the RE program is doing to enrich the lives (and stomachs!) of the fellowship’s
future.