Gift an education...Make a life !

A lot of food wisdom is present in the food that Indian grandmoms
used to cook at home. Over years though, with globalization and brilliant
marketing of fast food, current generation is preferring to eat junk food.

They are forgoing localized, weather appropriate home cooked fresh food
and adopting packaged food. This change in dietary habit is causing many
health issues in modern India.

To remind students about the value our grandmother’s wisdom and develop
love for indigenous food, Isha Vidhya schools run several food based programs.

Recently Vanavasi School’s 5th grade students organized a Food Festival to learn
these food items and nutrients present in them. Students brought dishes
prepared at home for the event. The teachers enquired each student about
the nutrient list in the dish they had brought.

Tamilnadu has numerous types of food preparations as each section of the
society has its own method and the ingredients.  This food festival introduced
many of those food items to the students and school staff!

One of the eachers shared:

"By reading from the lesson, student will not be able to know about the
traditional food. In order to know about those varieties, food festival was
conducted by our students.   We asked the students to bring the different
kinds of grains. The student came to know about grains like thenai,varagu,
samai,koralli, pannivaragu etc. We asked the student to prepare varieties
of food items and we planned to conduct the food festival. The students
explained the nutrients which is present in the food items to the principal
and teachers.

From the food festival, we feel happy, students came to know about what
are the nutrients present, its value and importance. Our student Muhruth
had brought tender rice & venn pongal which was really admired by our
teachers."

As part of their curriculum activity to study nature
and environment, Dharmapuri Isha Vidhya Infosys
Matriculation School 2nd grade students were taken
to a weekly town market called the 'Jarugu Vaarasandhai'.

Teachers Mr. Elangovan and Ms. Indira took the 68 
students to the market to observe the products in the
market which included fruits, vegetables, cereals, pulses,
seeds and greens.  The students also watched with
curiosity the process of buying and selling that happened
in the market.  For some, it was the first experience of 
watching such activities.

The students pointed and named the fruits and vegetables
and pronounced them for practice.  They were guided and
streamlined by the teachers while visiting the shops.
The shop-keepers were gentle enough to answer students'
questions, and explain/clarify the things that they didn't
understand.

Ananya from 2nd grade shares:

"I saw a beautiful garden that had yellow and white flowers.
I learnt about fruits, vegetables, greens, cereals, pulses,
seeds and greens.  I enjoyed the visit with my friends and
teachers.  When I got back home, I shared my experience
with my dad."

It's quite exciting that such visits provide a break from the
regular grind to the students, introduce them to the concepts
that they learn at the classes through practical real world
experience, and also educate and enrich the extended
community like their parents on what their children are
learning at their schools, and provide an opportunity to
share their own knowledge with their wards through a
conversation!

Please do share this report with your circle of family and
friends so that they know the great work that Isha Vidhya
is doing.

Also, please feel free to email us at global.giving@ishavidhya.org
in case if you have any questions or if you would like to
get involved with Isha Vidhya's work in any way that you
can think of.

We thank you so much for your support for Isha Vidhya,
and we look forward to being in constant touch with you.