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Curriculum

Standalone Units Course Overview

These standalone units provide culinary classrooms with a comprehensive understanding of the food system, exploring how food is grown, processed, and consumed, and its broader environmental, cultural, and social impacts. The units foster a deeper awareness of the complexities and challenges within our global and local food systems by examining sustainable agriculture, regional food traditions, climate change, and food waste prevention. Each unit emphasizes hands-on learning, critical thinking, and real-world applications, encouraging students to connect their knowledge to actionable solutions. Together, these lessons empower learners to make informed choices about food, appreciate its cultural significance, and contribute to a more sustainable and equitable food future.

As we start to see more of the effects of the climate crisis come into focus, it's important to identify some of its root causes. The ways in which we produce food have an effect on the climate, with some methods of production having a much more detrimental effect than others. This unit outlines what the climate crisis is and broadly analyzes the different ways that food production has affected these changes.

Unit Plan
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Lesson 1: Climate Crisis and Food

As we start to see more of the effects of the climate crisis come into focus, it's important to identify some of its root causes. The ways in which we produce food have an effect on the climate, with some methods of production having a much more detrimental effect than others. This lesson outlines what the climate crisis is and broadly analyzes the different ways that food production has affected these changes.
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Lesson 2: Water & Soil

Soil and water, two of the fundamental building blocks in agriculture, have come under peril as global temperatures soar. Students will explore historic soil and water management techniques (chinampas, indigenous silviculture, etc), and how those differ from what we call "industrial" or "conventional" agriculture.
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Lesson 3: Species Loss and Biodiversity

One of the consequences of our industrial food system is the rampant loss in global biodiversity we have seen over the past few years. Students will hone-in on land usage in this lesson and unpack the impact on a number of different species that occurs when converting natural spaces to farmland. This lesson relates to the idea that the more biodiverse our landscapes are, the stronger they are. This is a concept we can apply to other areas of our lives as well.
Lesson Plan
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Lesson 4: Food Waste

Waste is an apparent part of our food system and a contributor to food's impact on climate change. This lesson focuses on the EPA's food recovery hierarchy, and how each step along the continuum works to reduce the amount of food we waste. Students will then cook a "waste-free" meal, deciding as a group how they will deal with waste as they cook - and thinking deeply about any waste that might have occurred at a different point in their food journey.
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Lesson 5: Transportation

Our food system became increasingly globalized in the latter half of the 20th century. As food is shipped all over the world every day, we have seen this transportation become a major driver of climate change. Students will look at the concept of "food miles" through this lens - that the distance our food travels has a tremendous impact on the climate. We will unpack the reasons why we eat this way, and potential ways to reduce this impact.
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Lesson 6: Livestock

Much has been said about how the raising of animals has impacted the climate. While more resource intensive than growing vegetables, there are ways that farmers are seeking to provide animal products with less of a drastic environmental impact (rotational grazing, biodynamic systems, pricing out the triple bottom line when it comes to meat products). Students will compare the different inputs needed to grow vegetables and animals, specifically looking at how those inputs affect the climate. Using this information, they will reflect on their own consumption of meat - leaning into any cultural or philosophical reasons that might hold importance to them.
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Lesson 7: Synthetic Inputs

The so-called "Green Revolution" that started in the middle of the 20th century saw a rapid increase in the production of commodity crops but at the cost of a huge increase in the use of synthetic fertilizers. What caused that to happen? Where do these fertilizers come from? What effect have they had on the land? How is all of this connected to climate change? Do alternatives to this system work? This lesson explores these themes as students prepare an "organic" meal with a deeper understanding of how these processes might affect the food we eat.
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Lesson 8: Native Plants and Pollinators

One of the ways in which agriculture connects to climate change is in the way that intensive farming has diminished the amount and diversity of native plants and pollinator species. Knowing about the relationships between native plants and pollinators can open up new (and old) foodways for us. This lesson explores the ways that native plants and pollinators influence our food system: as food themselves (in the case of plants like hazelnut or paw-paw), as part of a farm’s ecosystem, and as part of ecosystem restoration.
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Lesson 9: Climate Friendly Agriculture

Agriculture has been a driver of climate change, but with its immense reach it can also be a part of the solution. "Climate-friendly" agriculture goes by many names - regenerative, sustainable, organic, real organic project, etc. In this lesson, students will unpack and compare what these words mean. In doing so they will discover the nuances and differences that exist across these terms, as well as where these agricultural techniques come from. Their cooking project will analyze the ingredients used through this lens as students decide how "climate-friendly" their meal actually is.
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Lesson 10: Carbon Sequestration

Carbon is one of the major contributors to greenhouse gas buildup in the atmosphere, which in turn drives up global temperatures. While farming can be very carbon/resource intensive, the use of cover crops can contribute to the idea of carbon sequestration (keeping carbon in the ground). Cover crops provide farms with many benefits, and for the environment, they can have a highly beneficial impact. This lesson explores what cover crops are, how they affect soil on a farm, and their role in carbon sequestration. Students will also cook a meal that incorporates different cover crops while considering other uses for these special plants.
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Lesson 11: Carbon Friendly Restaurant

As a wrap-up for this exploration of the relationship between food and climate change, students will get a chance to dream up their own restaurant of the future - one that thinks about climate change in as many ways as possible. Where do you want to source your ingredients from? What kinds of food will you serve? How will you market and describe your food to the public? Students will be encouraged to think about how they will want to communicate their new ideas on the connections between climate change and food and present one meal from their new restaurant to the class.
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Food justice is a broad term that can hold different definitions depending on the person or community. In this unit, students research various ways that food justice and other related terms are defined. They'll then come up with examples and define these words and phrases in their own terms using examples from their community. 

Unit Plan
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Lesson 1: Defining Food Justice

Food justice is a broad term that can hold different definitions depending on the person or community. In this lesson, students research various ways that food justice and other related terms are defined. They'll then come up with examples and define these words and phrases in their own terms using examples from their community.
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Lesson 2: Food & Identity

This lesson allows students to explore their identities and connections to food. Students will consider their own identities (racial/ethnic makeup, geography, hobbies, occupations of family members), and how food intersects with these identities. What foods are associated with each identity? How do those connect with each other? Students will map out their own food identities and see how those connect across different groups.
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Lesson 3: Land Access

Land access is at the anchor of any discussion of food justice - whose land are we on? Who has access to the land? How has that shifted over time? This lesson examines general trends in land access and usage (pre/post colonization, chattel slavery, redlining, etc) in America across different time periods and regions - and how those have affected the modern food system.
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Lesson 4: Food Apartheid

Students will unpack the reasons why the term "food desert" doesn't work anymore - and why food apartheid is a more thorough explanation for issues of abundance and access to quality food. They'll read various narratives on what these terms mean for the people living under food apartheid and identify the strategies being used to combat injustice. Depending on location, the class will also design a growing space for their school/classroom.
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Lesson 5: Food Sovereignty

This lesson examines the concept of food sovereignty through the “hourglass” model that shows corporate control over the food system. Students will analyze this structure and describe.
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Lesson 6: Labelling and Marketing

The way our food is marketed and labeled plays an important role in influencing our food choices. The labels and marketing campaigns that describe the food we eat can be both enlightening and misleading in regard to how our food is produced. In this lesson, students will analyze egg carton labels to learn more about the methods that brought the food to their plates.
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Lesson 7: The Cost of Food

Why is (on the whole) healthy food more expensive than unhealthy food? Many factors play into this, but unhealthy food can be heavily subsidized with many hidden costs, while the upfront cost of healthy food can be more apparent. This lesson explores the reasons why it can be cheaper to buy less healthy things and suggests a new rubric for determining the true cost of food. Students will cook a meal and analyze the cost of it.
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Lesson 8: School Food

School lunches are such integral parts of the school community, but who decides what goes onto plates? What companies and stakeholders are in charge of what goes onto our trays? This lesson explores those stakeholders and what other industries they are associated with, and gives space for students to design their own school lunch program.
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Lesson 9: Fair Trade / Farm Labor

Using coffee as a vehicle, this lesson explores farm labor and the movements surrounding more equitable growing practices. Coffee is an example of a crop that's been historically tied to evils like slavery and colonialism, yet is widely consumed. Students will then learn about the coffee trade and create a coffee-flavored dessert.
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Lesson 10: Environmental Justice

Environmental justice is a movement born out of the understanding that environmental issues affect poor and marginalized communities in a harsher way than others. This lesson explores these connections to the food system, using rural (Cancer Alley in Louisiana and its ties to chemical fertilizers) and urban (lead levels affecting the ability to grow food) examples. Students will conduct mock interviews with the different stakeholders involved.
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Lesson 11: Food Justice - Final Project

The goal of the final project for this unit is to map out the food justice landscape in your community. It will be based on a large map of the immediate community surrounding the school, and include things like farms and the issues facing them, food security agencies, gleaning networks, environmental justice, local food activists, different food identities, etc.
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Food systems have evolved over time from localized to globalized. The system that predominates today is complex and interconnected. Students will analyze the ways in which food is grown, processed, and consumed, and how that has shifted with the advent of refrigeration and industrialization.

Unit Plan
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Lesson 1: Introduction to the Food System

Food systems have evolved over time from localized to globalized. The system that predominates today is complex and interconnected. Students will analyze the ways in which food is grown, processed, and consumed, and how that has shifted with the advent of refrigeration and industrialization. In this lesson, students will use flour to illuminate how the food system has changed over time being challenged to grind wheat berries into flour and bake bread.
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Lesson 2: From Where to Here

There are many stakeholders in the food system, e.g. growers, processors, transporters, consumers. In this lesson, students will investigate the food system by identifying the interactions between the stakeholders and unearthing the less apparent aspects of the food system through a mapping activity.
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Lesson 3: We Get What We Can Get

The food system makes different foods available to different populations. This lesson will explore food justice by investigating the connection between income and food quality and availability.
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Lesson 4: On the Road

In our industrialized food system, most food is grown far from where it is consumed. In this lesson, students will learn about the climate impact of the modes of transportation used to move food around the world and the impact on the nutritional value and flavor of food cultivated to be distributed worldwide.
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Lesson 5: Creating the Food We Want and Need

Most of the foods we eat are cultivars (cultivated varieties) of a wild plant. Over time, we have bred seeds to produce food that is more flavorful, attractive, long-lasting. In this lesson, students will consider the brassica family and all the foods we have created from that one wild plant.
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Lesson 6: Mono & Polycultures

Historically, farms grew and raised a variety of plants and animals. Today, most industrialized farms grow only one crop; the main monoculture crops in the United States are corn, soy, and wheat. In this lesson, students will explore some of the advantages and disadvantages of monoculture farming.
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Lesson 7: Animal Husbandry

Historically, animal farms raised a variety of animals. Today, 90% of American livestock is raised in concentrated animal feeding operations (CAFOs). In this lesson, students will learn how animal husbandry has changed over time from pastoral to industrial rearing practices and explore the impact on the animals, environment, and ecosystems, the people that work there, and the communities where they are based.
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Lesson 8: What are They Trying to Sell Me?

The way our food is marketed and labeled plays an important role in influencing our food choices. The labels and marketing campaigns that describe the food we eat can be both enlightening and misleading in regard to how our food is produced. In this lesson, students will analyze egg carton labels to learn more about the methods that brought the food to their plates.
Lesson Plan
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Lesson 9: What a Waste

Almost 1/3 of the cultivated food that is grown is thrown out in the United States. From the field to the refrigerator, food and other agricultural products are thrown out due to pest infestations, spoilage throughout transit, or because of expiration dates. While there is a lot of food wasted, there are efforts being made to reduce that impact through food rescue efforts like gleaning networks and food pantries. In this lesson, students will explore how food is wasted and efforts to redistribute it, how food is discarded in a kitchen setting, and create a soup and stock with vegetable scraps.
Lesson Plan
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Lesson 10: Breaking Down a Meal

This activity builds on the information presented in the unit by challenging students to break down the ingredients in a meal they prepare as a group. Students will cook a meal with various ingredients (some local, some from a big box store), and research the origins of those ingredients. They will use any medium they want to tell the story of their dish to the class, encompassing as much of the food system as they can through what they have learned in the unit.
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Waste is an apparent part of our food system and a contributor to food's impact on climate change. 

Unit Plan
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Lesson 1: Sources of Waste

Waste is an apparent part of our food system and a contributor to food's impact on climate change. This lesson focuses on the EPA's food recovery hierarchy, and how each step along the continuum works to reduce the amount of food we waste. Students will then cook a "waste-free" meal, deciding as a group how they will deal with waste as they cook - and thinking deeply about any waste that might have occurred at a different point in their food’s journey.
Lesson Plan
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Lesson 2: Nutrient Cycling & Composting

When we consume nutrients in our food, it is important to consider where those nutrients originated and how we might go about replacing them. They originate in the soil, and replacing them is something we should consider as we eat. Composting presents a way for us to participate in this reciprocal process. With the right ingredients and ratios, a functioning compost system (both individual and community) presents a logical place for organic waste in the food system. Students in this lesson will learn the various scales that composting exists on, what it means for soil health, and analyze a dish for its compostable ingredients.
Lesson Plan
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Lesson 3: Gleaning

One source of food waste is the produce left behind after a harvest on a farm. This lesson introduces students to the idea of gleaning: its history, current usage, and opportunities that exist for it in their communities. They'll look at how gleaning affects different relationships in a community (farmers, food rescue organizations, volunteers, etc.). After building relationships with a local farm, students will cook a meal using gleaned produce.
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Lesson 4: Utilizing Plant Parts

When cooking with plants, we are sometimes left with a considerable amount of waste - potato peels, carrot tops, squash seeds, etc. In this lesson, students will identify common waste sources involving plant parts and how we can better utilize them in the kitchen. Ideas for a recipe: carrot top pesto, butternut squash soup with roasted seeds as garnish, corn soup with stock made from cobs, etc.
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Lesson 5: Kitchen Intuition

When we read recipes, sometimes we feel bound by certain parameters or ingredients, purchasing items we only need a little bit of while the rest goes to waste. When students learn kitchen intuition and thinking ahead, they can reduce their own waste at the consumer level. Students will examine sets of recipes and create week long meal plans that utilize similar ingredients, making substitutions when necessary. For example, if they want to roast a chicken they can use the carcass to make stock instead of buying stock later in the week and freeze what is left for future soups.
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Lesson 6: Identifying Barriers & Eliminating Waste

In a world where we produce more food than ever before, how is it that people still go hungry and food goes to waste? This lesson explores some of the structural reasons why waste exists in our food system (consumer preferences, economics, spoilage, over-preparation or purchasing, etc.). Students will examine the food system critically to uncover the roots of food waste by looking at several critical points (a supermarket employee faced with a surplus, a struggling restaurant, a farmer faced with blemished apples).
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Lesson 7: Preservation Pt. 1

How can we also nourish ourselves while preventing food from being wasted? Various techniques are available to us that could help mitigate this problem. Many of them have existed for centuries and have been employed all over the world. These two lessons explore techniques that can be used at various stops along the food system with the right forethought.
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Lesson 8: Preservation Pt. 2

How can we also nourish ourselves while preventing food from being wasted? Various techniques are available to us that could help mitigate this problem. Many of them have existed for centuries and have been employed all over the world. These two lessons explore techniques that can be used at various stops along the food system with the right forethought.
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Lesson 9: Food Waste - Final Project

Students will write a research based paper exploring a certain industry and their connection to food waste.
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Seasons dictate what plants will grow at different times of the year. Students will analyze what products is available at certain times of the year, foraging vs. cultivating, regenerative agriculture, and the importance of seeds and plant diversity.

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Lesson 1: Seasonality

Seasons dictate what plants will grow at different times of the year. In this lesson, students will analyze what produce is available at certain times of the year. They’ll adapt recipes for certain times of year, and discuss the benefits and limitations of eating seasonally.
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Lesson 2: Seeds and Diversity

Seeds are a fundamental piece of both culinary and garden spaces. They are the building blocks of plant life and provide us with plenty of nutrients. In this lesson, students will discover what makes up a seed and its potential applications in the kitchen.
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Lesson 3: Plant Biology

Students will consider how the different parts of the plant are used in the kitchen. We have developed different relationships with plants to enhance their culinary applications, from unlocking nutrients to making potentially hazardous plants safe to eat. Students will find ways to utilize all the basic plant parts in a culinary application.
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Lesson 4: Foraging vs. Cultivating

For centuries humans have both cultivated food and found items to eat across the landscape. In this lesson, students will consider these two methods of food procurement, and learn about what foods occur in their surrounding areas.
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Lesson 5: What is Farming?

Farms are the fundamental places from which we acquire our food, and can be places where food is both grown and processed. In this lesson, students will consider how the act of farming has changed and evolved over time, and how they differ from place to place.
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Lesson 6: Ocean Farming

Ocean farming takes on many forms across the seas, using the water as a growing space that is utilized in different ways. Within this lesson, students will explore how the ocean is used for various types of farming, and cook with produce from an ocean farm.
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Lesson 7: Intro to Regenerative Agriculture

Regenerative agriculture is an all-encompassing term that doesn't have a strict definition. In this lesson, students will work towards defining this term and applying it to a potential farm proposal.
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Regenerative farming has its roots in many of the practices employed, developed, and continued by the Indigenous people of New England. Places are often identified as homes to certain foods, whether they are grown there or they have been popularized by certain communities within the state.

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Lesson 1: Roots of Regenerative Agriculture

Regenerative farming has its roots in many of the practices employed, developed, and continued by the Indigenous people of New England. This lesson will unpack the principles of regenerative agriculture through the lens of Indigenous knowledge throughout history. For example, the concept of intercropping and polycultures has its roots in the "Three Sisters" planting, and the roots-in-the-ground emphasis on perennial plants can be traced back to the complex forest management techniques of Native people. Students will learn about these and other ways that regenerative farming is shaped by indigenous knowledge, and how those ideas have evolved and changed over time.
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Lesson 2: Why We Grow What We Grow

This lesson examines the produce from different regions of New England, and the conditions (space, climate, resources, urban/suburban, landscape) that allow them to be grown (e.g. cranberries bogs in Massachusetts, potatoes from Maine, oysters & kelp in CT). Students will explore a few different regions of our area, as well as the crops that are produced.
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Lesson 3: Eat Like You Live Here

Places are often identified as homes to certain foods, whether they are grown there or they have been popularized by certain communities within the state. In this lesson, students will learn about iconic New England food items (marshmallow fluff, Boston cream pie, Vermont Maple Syrup, Dunkin Donuts, Ben and Jerry's etc), and the ways in which those foods became ubiquitous within our region. They will answer questions about these foods, like who brought them here, how they have shaped our cuisine, what brands dominate the landscape etc.
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Lesson 4: Let's Talk Turkey

Turkeys have made quite the comeback in New England after being hunted to near extinction in the 20th century. They exist both in the wild and on farms, providing a unique way of viewing this food item. We now see heritage breeds, wild birds, as well as mass produced birds for consumption. Students will explore how consumption of this bird has shifted throughout New England history, and the factors that would influence turkey production across the region (lack of space, availability of processing facilities, etc).
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Lesson 5: Farms to Waterways

Water and farms are inherently connected: farms depend on water, and what happens on a farm affects water in a myriad of ways, e.g. industrial dairy farms and small scale vegetable farms require different quantities of water to operate, and affect water around them in different ways. Students will use this knowledge to examine how farming has impacted the waterways of New England.
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Lesson 6: New England's #1 Food

There are more than 1000 dairy farms in New England and dairy is a major source of revenue for all the states in NE. This lesson reviews the history of dairy production in New England, from individual cows owned by families, smaller family farms, to the worker cooperatives of today. Students will trace these different lineages and unpack where certain dairy products originated across the region. They might find that some are easier to learn about than others. Students will examine different products that represent different stakeholders in the New England Dairy industry (Cabot Cheese, Cato Corner cheese, Hood Milk, Garelick farms, and other smaller dairy producers like Sweetgrass Creamery, Jasper Hill, etc).
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Lesson 7: Preserving New England's Bounty

New England has a limited growing season based on our climate, and we need to take advantage of the time we have with the abundance of summer. Farmers choose crop varieties that are tailored well for our climate, growing season, and soils. We then have a certain amount of time to make use of all these products. Students in this lesson will learn about the decision-making process for New England farmers and when certain crops are at their peak harvest. In the kitchen, students will learn about various methods of preservation used to prolong the flavors of summer.
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Lesson 8: Ocean Farming

New England’s bounty of fresh fish and seafood has shaped much of its cuisine and food traditions. In this unit students will learn which fish thrive in the cold waters of the Atlantic Ocean and bays of New England as well as which are farmed on the coastlines. They’ll learn the difference between harvesting wild fish and seafood and raising fish and seafood in fish farms, and discuss the pros and cons of both.
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Lesson 9: Farm to Cafeteria

Farms have various ways to stay afloat, including selling their produce to institutions like schools. The term "farm to school" gets thrown around a lot, but what does that really mean? This lesson unpacks the barriers and successes in getting local, sustainably produced food into cafeterias. Students will report on the status of getting this food into schools for their particular region/school system, analyzing the different stakeholders, pricing models, etc.
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Lesson 10: Getting the Food We Need

Eating locally and sustainably is a healthy goal for both people and the planet. But there are barriers to eating local, sustainable food, barriers related to class, race, and other factors. Students will learn where and to whom local food in New England is most available. They will research barriers that communities face when trying to eat locally and sustainably, through a series of interviews with local food security agencies.
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Lesson 11: Intro to Agriculture: Grains

Grain, an important part of diets around the world, was traditionally grown locally. In the 20th century, grain production has primarily been industrialized. In this lesson, students will learn about different kinds of grain and where they are grown.
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Lesson 12: Culminating Project

This unit has focused on giving the students in-depth background on how, where and what is grown in New England, and how climate, geography and history impact food practices and traditions. In this lesson, students will revisit what they’ve learned and create a seasonal menu using the information they’ve learned, identifying which lessons their meal represents.
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Funding Partners

CT Grown for CT Kids Grant
USDA National Institute of Food and Agriculture
USDA Patrick Leahy Farm to School Program

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