Elders and students meet with flavour
Traditional values come to school with a hot meal to boot
Andrew Livingstone
Northern News Services
Published Thursday, February 5, 2015
INUVIK
Connecting students at East Three Secondary School with elders in the community is something teacher Patrick Gauley-Gale believes is important.
Grade 11 student Kyla Hbatum serves up a piping hot bowl of carrot and ginger soup during the elder lunch program at East Three Secondary School. The program provides a hot meal for students and physical activity. - Andrew Livingstone/NNSL photo
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So being able to combine healthy eating and nutrition with traditional knowledge and values is at the core of the new twice-weekly elder lunches being hosted at the school.
Gauley-Gale is the food and gardening teacher at the school and said with some recent funding from the Inuvialuit Regional Corporation, he's been able to launch a series of new food-based programs that help incorporate traditional knowledge and learning into his classroom.
"The idea is elders will come in and facilitate these events and kids get a free hot lunch with it," he said.
"There was an option to access funding and we're always trying to find ways to incorporate traditional values into the school."
Grade 11 student Kyla Hbatum said the program helps expose students to their culture and connect with elders in the community.
"It encourages people to eat lunch, especially those who might not have anything to eat," she said while helping serve food to at least 30 students at the school on Feb. 3.
Since beginning his teaching career at the school in 2011, Gauley-Gale said he's seen students who aren't getting proper meals or enough healthy foods in their daily lives.
This program is an opportunity to provide support to those students while giving them a chance to learn from elders in the community.
"There are a handful of kids who suffer from food insecurity and it's a chance to provide a warm meal and healthy activity," he said.
The lunch is prepped by older students that Gauley-Gale works with, and he said the example they set for the younger students helps to build a stronger community, both inside the school and out.
"It's leading to this community building aspect that's so important," he said.
Gauley-Gale said the school has also received funding from the corporation for two other projects.
Students will be making a trip out to the reindeer station to harvest reindeer to celebrate the 80th anniversary of the herd coming to the region, something he said he's excited for because of the chance to learn from the students.
"I'm more of the student in those settings and it gives them some confidence to stick out the classroom work," he said.
"It's important for kids to get time outside the classroom. It provides a setting for kids to take on a leadership role."
They have also received funding for a community kitchen program to involve adults in learning how to prepare meals for their families at home.
The lunch-hour activity currently runs two days a week, on Tuesdays and Thursdays.
