You Can Eat That?!?!

Hello fellow food consumers!  My name is Jenn Effinger-Damron and I am a new librarian here at MidPointe!  I was a teacher at a Montessori school and a Reggio Emilia inspired school for toddlers up to age 6.  I am not a nutritionist, but I do know the importance of how your diet affects you, and your children.

One of my favorite topics to talk about and partake in is food.  I love being able to talk about the different fruits and vegetables and how they grow and taste.  In my classrooms, I would love to bring in strange foods that are found in the grocery store and eat it in front of the children to spark the conversation of “What is that!?”, “How does that grow?”, and “You can eat that!?”.  These natural teachable moments helped spawn conversations about the importance of eating a balanced diet and how what you put in your body fuels you, just like putting gas in a car.  I like to tell my students, if you put good and healthy things in your body, it will make you feel better and give you more energy.  If you put things that are bad and not healthy in your body, it will make you feel bad.

Here at the library, I have transformed that experience into a more interactive conversation of “You can eat that?!”, “What does it taste like?”, and “What can you do with it!?”. 

A lot of children (and myself included) are not sure how the different fruits and vegetables taste like and how they are grown.  I like finding different items that are found in the local grocery store and figure out what to do with them.

We have explored the bitter vegetable flavors of rhubarb and what a rhubarb, strawberry crumble pie tastes like.  We enjoyed the tangy fruit of a pomegranate and enjoyed frozen pomegranate pops.  We had parsnip and savored the flavor of salted caramel parsnip fries.

Since fall is here, I figured we would be able to explore the different flavors of fall outside of the traditional pumpkin.  We will be exploring the flavor of spaghetti squash.  What is a spaghetti squash you ask?  Well, it is something that you can find out at the “You Can Eat That!?” program on October 19th at 10am. There will be a savory treat that is created with spaghetti squash to consume at the end! There will be more foods explored on November 16th at 10am in the Children’s department.

When attending the program, you can expect being able to learn the difference of a fruit and vegetable and what we are consuming that day, a treat that includes the featured food, some fun songs played from my ukulele, and a craft!  This program is geared towards all ages, but it does help the children that haven’t attended any school, learn the different tools and techniques on how to participate in a classroom atmosphere.

I hope to see you during these delicious programs!!

About the Author:  Jenn Effinger-Damron has taught children at a Montessori and Reggio Emilia inspired schools and has turned accidental librarian in the Youth Department.  She loves silly stories, plays and coaches a local roller derby team, and is learning to play the ukulele..