tasting history
Each year my U.S. History students write a cookbook of family recipes passed down through generations and share their reflections on their migration journeys—memories of far away homelands and dreams of American futures.
The project is the culmination of our study of immigration from the late 1800s and early 1900s. We reflect on Emma Lazarus’s poem at the base of the Statue of Liberty; we read the poems written by immigrants into the walls of Angel Island in San Francisco; we study laws that attempted to exclude—the Chinese Exclusion Act, the Johnson Reed Immigration Act; and we discuss how those laws were ultimately overturned, allowing America to welcome immigrants once more. Having studied the journeys and experiences of 19th and 20th century immigrants, I ask my students to share their 21st century migration stories.
Through their books I hope my students see that their history is part of America’s story.
-
Annual cookbook features recipes and stories from immigrant students at Lowell High School, Jan 2024. WBUR Radio Boston Host Tiziana Dearing spoke with two of our students Gentille and Maneth about our class’s newest editions to the Tasting History Project and shared with her their family food in studio at WBUR.
Tasting History Project, Northeast Farm to School Collaborative Profile, Spring 2023. Profile of our class’s Tasting History and podcast conversations with five of our student authors: Kelby, Azka, Rebeca, Jamily, and Moise.
Tasting History: How sharing a recipe can connect cultures featuring 3 students from Lowell High School, March 2023. Highest Aspirations podcast host Steve Sofronas speaks with three student authors of Tasting History about their history, family recipes, and stories of migration.
Food, glorious food: School menus serve up delish, diverse dishes, Oct 13. Lowell Sun Article highlighting the collaboration between the Food & Nutrition Department and the Tasting History Project.
Tasting history: How sharing a recipe can connect cultures featuring 3 students from Lowell High School, March 2023. Highest Aspirations podcast host Steve Sofronas speaks with three student authors of Tasting History about their history, family recipes, and stories of migration.
Local cookbook features recipes and migration stories from Lowell High School students, Feb 2023. WBUR Radio Boston Host Tiziana Dearing spoke with two of our students Camila and Haroon about our class’s ncookbook features recipes and migration stories from Lowell High School studentsewest editions to the Tasting History Project and shared with her their family food in studio at WBUR.
In Lowell school cafeterias, they’re serving up a taste of home, June 2022. Reporter Peggy Hernandez published a beautiful profile of our class’s Tasting History Project which ran on the front page of The Boston Globe’s Food Section.
Food Literacy in Massachusetts, May 2022. Our Tasting History cookbook project and our students collaboration with the district’s food services and cafeterias was featured in a statewide report by the Massachusetts Food System Collaborative.
Students’ traditional recipes showcased in Lowell High School cafeteria, Jan 2022. The Lowell Sun published a front page feature about the collaboration between my students and the LPS Cafeterias, which are now cooking family recipes from my students’ cookbook “Tasting History” in the Lowell School cafeterias.
Interview with Lowell High School Head of School, Dec 2021. Lowell High School’s head of school interviewed three student authors of “Tasting History” about their cookbook and the 2021 Founders Award their cookbook won.
2021 Founders Award, Readable Feast, Nov 2021. The Regional Readable Feast Festival honored my students who published our cookbook “Tasting History” in 2020-2021.
A Cookbook Curriculum Brings Immigrant Students Together, Oct 2021. The Harvard Ed. Magazine featured a Q+A about our U.S. History “Tasting History” Cookbook Project.
Lowell High School students share their families’ recipes and coming-to-America stories in new cookbook, July 2021. The Boston Globe Newspaper food section spotlighted my students’ new cookbook of family recipes and journeys to the United States created as part of our study of 19th century immigration.
Tasting History, Nov 2017. Article about the origins of the Tasting History Project written for Harvard Graduate School of Education’s Usable Knowledge.
-
In the 2021-22 school year, our class began collaborating with the Food and Nutrition services for the district of Lowell Public Schools. The Food Services executive chef collaborates with my students, choosing a selection of their family recipes and adapting them to be able to serve in the school cafeterias (accounting for school nutrition guidelines and available ingredients). He conducted taste tests with my students and sought feedback. Then these dishes were served to more than 14,000 students across the district. Through this collaboration food from Cambodia, Somaliland, Guatemala, Bangladesh, Afghanistan, Brazil, and Colombia has been served in our school cafeterias for the first time. It's been really powerful to watch my extraordinary immigrant students and Lowell Food Services come together to share delicious foods from around the globe with the community and to see the impact on students - for my immigrant students in seeing their histories valued in their new community, and for their peers who are learning from their classmates. This partnership is ongoing.
-
In 2021 we began collaborating with the Lowell Public Schools Curriculum Department as they have built out a new social studies unit for third grade called Lowell, Then and Now. An important part of the unit are the contributions of different cultural groups to the fabric of the community. The Tasting History Cookbooks has been embedded into the new curriculum to illustrate the contributions of our newcomers to the local cuisine. All third-grade teachers have copies of the cookbook and short videos of some of the high school student authors talking about their recipes and migration journeys.
