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Local Food and Global Health
  1. Strand PHIL.IV Volunteering and Service
    1. Standard VS 01. Needs Assessment
      1. Benchmark HS.1 Identify a need in the school, local community, state, nation, or world.
    2. Standard VS 02. Service and Learning
      1. Benchmark HS.1 Select a service project based on interests, abilities, and research.
    3. Standard VS 03. Providing Service
      1. Benchmark HS.1 Provide a needed service.
      2. Benchmark HS.3 Describe the task and the student role.
      3. Benchmark HS.6 Describe the procedures and the importance of sensitivity to the people with whom students are working.
    4. Standard VS 05. Integrating the Service Experience into Learning
      1. Benchmark HS.3 Identify outcomes from the service.

Students reflect on questions related to global health and then brainstorm possible service projects related to food insecurity or global health. They plan and carry out a service project.

Duration: 
PrintOne 45-Minute Session, plus time to plan and carry out a service project
Objectives: 

The learner will:

  • identify the global sources of the food that they eat.
  • make sustainable health choices for themselves and others.
  • explain how food choices are limited by resources, culture, and geography.
  • choose a food-related issue or need to address through planning and implementing.
Materials: 
  • student copies of Handout One: Undernourishment and Life Expectancy around the Globe
  • optional: student copies of Handout Two:Background Information on Hunger
  • six sheets of chart paper and six markers
Instructions: 
Print

  1. Anticipatory Set:

    Write the word security on the display board. Ask students to define the word. They may use the words safety or feeling of low risk in their definitions. Add the prefix in to form the word insecurity. Tell them that this means a feeling of risk or lack of safety. Tell them that the term food insecurity means "the risk or fear of not having consistent access to food that meets people's dietary needs and food preferences."Discuss the meaning of the term. Tell students that food insecurity is an issue all over the world. Share Handout One: Undernourishment and Life Expectancy around the Globe. Discuss the data.

  2. Put students in small working groups of three to five students and give each group a question on chart paper from the list below. Ask them to work with their group to brainstorm answers. Groups rotate from question to question, discuss, and then add to the comments. When all the groups have responded to all the questions, display the answers and discuss as a whole class. (Suggestion: give each group a different color marker that moves with them so comments can be identified with the group.)

  3. Questions for charts:

    1. What are the benefits and limits of buying locally?
    2. What are the benefits and limits of buying foods and products from other countries around the world?
    3. What natural resources are used in the processing and transportation of food?
    4. Why do some countries have a problem with overeating while other countries have food insecurity?
    5. Should we be concerned about the disparity of access to sufficient, healthy food across the globe? Support your answer. (This may include two columns of response under the headings yes and no.)
    6. What are the global effects of both obesity and malnutrition (How are these issues of the common good)?

  4. Brainstorm issues related to diet, food, and hunger that exist in the community and the world (may include obesity, famine, fast food, school lunch choices, carbon footprint of processing and food transportation, etc.).Students may refer to Handout Two: Background Information on Hunger for a reference. Then, through discussion and voting, determine what issue they would like to address. The following ideas may be shared with the young people to spark their creativity and enthusiasm:

    • Teach others about global food advocacy.
    • Find a charity to support and find out what its needs are. Feeding America is a good international resource with local branches https://www.feedingamerica.org/
    • Teach others about food groups and good food choices.
    • Promote locally produced food.
    • Promote legislation to support local farmers.
    • Hold an international food fair with samples of and information about unprocessed foods from different global regions.

  5. Plan and carry out a service project related to food and global health.

Reflection: 

Hold the string-end of a ball of yarn and toss the ball to a participant. That person uses a word or phrase to describe his or her personal feelings about what they learned or observed about global food and health. After reflecting aloud, that person holds the string and tosses the ball to another person who shares, holds the string, and tosses the ball again. The ball unravels more with each throw, connecting participants like a spider web. Repeat this reflection process until everyone is part of the web created by the yarn. Point out to students that the web represents the interconnectedness of people around the world.  If time permits, have the group “retrace” the ball tosses. This time, the person with the ball rewinds the yarn onto the ball while sharing the effects or next steps of their service project.