Food For Thought - 2005 and 2006
A successful collaboration between the LMLG and the University of Leicester Botanic Garden
Between 7 - 15 April 2005, 360 children from 6 Leicester schools found out what it is like to live and work in Nicaragua. Their day began in school where they were taken on an illustrated tour of Masaya with Miguel, meeting his friends and family, gasping at the views of the lakes and volcanoes, visiting his school and the bustling market, hearing about traditional foods such as ‘Gallo Pinto’ and ‘Tortillas’ and enjoying Masaya’s rich cultural and artistic heritage.
They also learnt about life in rural Masaya, where people depend on the land but often struggle to feed their families in the dry season. They heard how Miguel’s aunt has built a water tank to store water so she can irrigate her crops in the dry season, growing maize, beans and a variety of fruits and vegetables, as well as breeding chickens to supplement the family income and buy school uniforms.
From here, the children travelled to the Botanic Garden where they went into ‘role’, taking on various jobs to show the different stages of taking produce from the farmer’s field to the market place as they recreated a bustling Nicaraguan market town.
There were maize farmers planting and harvesting the corn, millers drying and grinding the kernels and selling the maize flour to the cooks who turned it into tortillas. Another enthusiastic group chopped and prepared pineapples, melons and oranges to make delicious ‘Frescos’ and discovered yet another use for maize flour as they learnt to make ‘Pinolillo’.
In the crafts area (reminiscent of Monimbó) artisans made and decorated cotton tortilla bags and others designed necklaces and bracelets using seeds and wooden beads. A small group formed a co-operative and used the plants in the garden to produce herbal remedies familiar in Nicaragua.
Their activities were complemented by a visit to the tropical, temperate and desert green houses in the garden to see for themselves how the various plants that are found in Nicaragua grow - from bananas, pineapples, maize, coffee and rice to aloe vera and cotton.
Fruit drinks, tortillas and the many products and artefacts made from plants were then sold to the market, where the stall holders haggled to get the best prices from their suppliers and their customers, bringing the realities of the local economy to life.
The children returned to school with their wares, where they shared their achievements with the rest of the school. In a series of follow up activities, they began to engage with the concept of international trade with a focus on fair trade. Working with the education officer from Just. (Leicester’s fair-trade shop), they tracked a bunch of bananas on its journey from Nicaragua to Leicester, to witness the impact that changing prices have on the producers - and how their lives are improved by fair-trade schemes……
One lucky school was treated to a Fairtrade breakfast provided by the Midlands Co-op which is supporting the project and helping to raise awareness of how young people can act as ethical consumers.
It is of particular importance that this project took place during the Global Week of Action for Trade Justice and we are confident that the outcomes helped schools make a positive contribution to the MAKE POVERTY HISTORY Campaign.