I believe that food insecurity affects culture and identity in really big ways. When people don’t have regular access to enough food, it can change their daily lives, traditions, and even how they see themselves. Food is a huge part of culture. Different groups of people have special recipes, celebrations, and family traditions that are passed down through generations. But when there isn’t enough food, or when families can’t afford the ingredients they used to use, those traditions can start to disappear or change. For example, someone from a culture that usually eats a certain dish for holidays might not be able to make it anymore, which could make them feel disconnected from their heritage. Food insecurity can also affect how people feel about themselves. If someone can’t afford enough food or has to rely on food banks, it can be embarrassing or stressful, and that can affect their confidence and identity. Overall, I believe that food insecurity is about more than just hunger. It can disconnect people from their roots, change the way communities celebrate, and impact how individuals feel about who they are.

November 12, 2024

For this project I worked with Maliyah Morris, Chloe Henderson, Norah Dunlap, and Amelia Vinson to create a Google Slides and a video. We had to leverage our understanding of the chemistry behind food quality to propose actionable policies that ensure healthier food options for understanding communities. For step 1, we had to research the issue of food deserts. This meant that we had to understand the chemistry of food quality, analyze current policies, and study successful models. For step 2, we had to identify our goal, which meant clearly defining the problem we aimed to address. For step 3, we developed evidence-based proposals, which meant highlighting the chemistry-health connection, proposing specific policies, and providing feasibility plans. For step 4, we engaged stakeholders, which meant identifying key decision-makers, and understanding stakeholder interests. For step 5, we drafted our policy proposal, which meant having an executive summary, background and evidence, policy recommendations, expected outcomes, and conclusion and call to action. For step 6, we presented and advocated, which meant preparing our presentation, engaging our audience, and having a public awareness campaign. For step 7, we evaluated and revised, which meant collecting feedback from our classmates to refine our proposal.

December 13, 2024

Our goal for this project was to make ceramics to show off the equipment that was involved in the Columbian exchange. For the Food for Thought Project in Chemistry, we're showcasing what a food desert is, and the difference between processed and fresh foods. For the Food for Thought Project in language arts and Spanish, we're doing cookbook recipes; some in English and some in Spanish. World History allows us to make food from either hemisphere that was in the Columbian Exchange. For visual arts, each person in our group (Ariana Harris, Maliyah Morris, Chloe Henderson, and I) was required to make a ceramic of some sort that was inspired by one of the countries in the Columbian Exchange. The ceramics we chose to make were corn, money, honey, and a plate. Chloe made the plate to show how the Columbian Exchange worked. I chose honey because it was a valuable trade item during the Columbian Exchange. Ariana chose money because each hemisphere became wealthy through trading, and Maliyah chose corn because this crop aided in population growth. Our techniques were glazing, scoring, using slip, and coloring our ceramics.  In the beginning, we created a plate that didn't turn out the way we wanted it too, so we decided to make another plate that fit the vision that we all had. If we had more time, we think we would have tried to make more ceramics of the items that were traded during the Columbian Exchange.

November 29, 2024

For this project, we read the autobiography, Persepolis by Marjane Satrapi. We learned about how her life changed and also how food shaped her life. After reading the book, we were able to choose our groups to create recipe cards that represented each one of us. I worked with W. Asante Hodges, Jai Bazawule, Mari O'Neill and Mayci O'Neill. For our recipe, we created .

January 6, 2025