sprout

We had the opportunity to work with a University Preparatory Academy,

in partnership with a program that was already in place teaching the

children about nutrition. Our first step was to understand our audience,

a group of children living in Detroit, ages 10-12. We went into the class

rooms and asked the children to fill out a survey about their eating habits.

We also led a class discussion about their favorite things to eat and what

the strangest vegetable they have eaten.

Ethnographic Research

Student filling out survey

survays and photos

Student Surveys

This was an enjoyable experience because were able to

actually engage with the audience we would be creating

the project for. We found out that they were excited

about food but had poor eating habits and exposure

to diverse foods. We also found that the teaching

methodology at University Prep was activity based.

Emily answering questions about the student survey

Based on what we learned from our ethnographic research we began

to draw conclusions on how to approach and develop a project for the

children. We new that it needed to activity based learning and defiantly

needed to be fun.

We found that fourteen out of the thirty-two students had eaten fast food

the night before. We also found in our research was that 58.8% of the

students are eligible for free lunch, 10.4% are eligible for reduced lunch,

and 30.8% are not eligible.

We decided to make an event where the children all made different recipes

and brought them into share with their classmates. But first we needed to

educate them on what healthy food is and help guide them into making

healthy choices when making something to share.

Guide Book Photos

We decided to create an entire program called sprout. We did this because

sprouts have the highest concentration of nutrition per calorie of any food.

Sprouts are a rich source of vitamins, minerals, trace minerals, enzymes,

antioxidants, chlorophyll and protein. We also used sprout because it

refers to the idea of growth similar to how we wanted out students to grow

and learn about healthy choices.

As a result we made a guide book filled with fun learning

activities about different food groups. We also included

information about unprocessed foods and label reading.

These activities helped to educate and engage the students

in a fun way.

Nutritional Guide

Grain activity spread

Fruit activity

Once the students completed the guidebook they were asked to create a

healthy recipe and make enough of it to share with their fellow students.

The students filled out a recipe card listing what was in the food and how

to make it. We titled the event “Taste Bud Challenge” because we were

challenging the children to try and taste something healthy and have fun

while doing it. There was also a competition where students were able to

vote for best dish and best fruit, vegetable, unprocessed, protein, and

grain dishes.

Challenge Guidelines

Student recipe collection form

On the day of the event the students seemed

very excited for their classmates to try their

dishes and to taste the dishes. Some students

has so much that they couldn’t carry it all back

to their table. All of the participants did a very

good job at creating healthy recipes to share.

Taste-Bud Challenge

Students enjoying their classmates dishes

Left: Student Choice Winner Right: Best Grain Winner

Student trying new foods

After the “Taste-Bud Challenge” event we

gathered all of the recipes and created a

cookbook that contained all of the participants

recipes and featured the winners of the six

categories. We also included a how to grow your

own sprout instructions, kitchen safety, cooking

terms, blank recipe cards, recipes from the

faculty, photos of the students from the event,

ten ways to save on groceries, and a list of local

grocery stores in the Detroit area.

Cookbook

Cookbook Introduction

Information Cards

Student Recipe Cards

Faculty Recipe Cards

Information Cards

Nutritional Guide and Cookbook