Saratoga News

Education

Photograph by George Sakkestad

Foothill Elementary fifth-grader Jason Ju, who is half-Chinese and half-Italian, serves an Italian desert bread to classmate Johnathan Young during the school's Bread Breaking Day. Students were asked to share bread from their country of heritage as a way to learn about the diversity around them.

Students break bread to share different cultures

By Michele Tjin

Bread, that utilitarian staple, was everywhere recently at Foothill Elementary School, as students celebrated its cross-cultural simplicity and ate their way through the countries of the world.

In honor of Bread Breaking Day at Foothill on Sept. 22, students tore a piece off of their dok, chappati or sourdough bread to share with their classmates, as they talked about where their families come from. In each class, students were asked to bring some bread to represent their cultural heritage.

"We're celebrating differences and similarities," said Vasanthi Arjavalingam, a parent volunteer who helped organize the event. "We're more similar than we think. Food is something we identify with, and it's the first introduction to other cultures."

In Susan Kim's second-grade class, students learned bread can be square, round, flat or raised. They sampled pretzel bread from Germany; dok, a Korean snack made of sticky rice powder; and chappati, a flat bread from India.

"We all came from somewhere," said Kim, as she addressed her class wearing a traditional Korean dress. "Some families came 200 years ago. I came from Korea when I was in second grade."

In Martie Connor's first-grade class, students had their plates piled high with sweet and savory munchies. They sampled injerra, a pancake-like bread from Ethiopia, and challah, the Jewish bread eaten on the Sabbath and holidays. Students covered the four corners of the world, all before the morning recess.

"I ate almost everything," said first-grader Jack Ryan. "I think I'm going to get a tummy-ache."

Doris Hsu, a fifth-grader, passed out individually wrapped Chinese pineapple cakes to her friends in Tracy Kinsch's class. Doris said learning about other cultures through food was a good idea.

"It gives me a hint about another country," she said. "When I eat other foods, it makes me think I'm there already."

While there was plenty of puto, a Filipino rice cake, and koulourakia, a cookie from Greece, to go around, familiar comfort foods were not forgotten. Fifth-grader Lily Cinnamon treated her class to bagels, while her classmate Joseph Locke brought Krispy Kreme donuts, which originated in North Carolina, just like his mother. Joseph said he is not afraid to try new things to eat.

"It's important to learn about different cultures so you can learn to treat everyone better," he said.

Besides the lessons in geography and culture, the day also lent itself to history assignments. Students in Sandy Waite-Lopez's fourth-grade class wrote essays about the first relative in their family to come to California. They learned some came by train decades ago, while others flew here recently.

"Our families have come to California for a better life, for better weather, to get a job or education," Waite-Lopez said to her class.

Fourth-grader Tejas Siripurapu said he gets the message of cultural diversity.

"It's important so others know more about you, and they won't make fun of you," he said. "They may be just like you."

Sharing good eats with others also allowed him to learn more about himself, Tejas said. He was introduced to an Indian treat, a crispy and twisted snack, that he's never seen before.

"And I'm from India," he said.

Whether it was with banana bread from Saratoga or green onion pancakes from Taiwan, parents and teachers said they wanted to impress on the students on how rich their community at Foothill is. Bread comes in all shapes, sizes and flavors, just like people.