IMO, as a 11 year classroom teacher now online, students have a kind of freedom to chat or speak without much judgment online. Today, we talked about lunch bc someone was having lasagna & said 'We're Chinese but my mom makes us lasagna for lunch.' We then had /1

a long conversation about food, cultural stereotypes, & racism. Food-culture is so important to identity & acceptance. The kids discussed their history of negative reactions around food & that, in younger grades, they asked to take 'white food' for lunch. /2

'Kevin's' mom makes lasagna because her 4 kids once begged her to not send Chinese food to school. I could see all the students of colour nod their heads immediately. All. South Asian, South-East Asian, Middle-Eastern, African, Russian, & South American, Caribbean culture. /3

All nodding at having their lunches laughed at or worse. I asked what "white food" was requested & some answers were "cheese and crackers" & "sandwich" & a "granola bar" all said in a very formal way. Someone said "white people love their cheese strings" to much laughter. /4

But then students started to share favourite foods from home - dosa, sameer, bolani, carrot halwa, goat curry, roti, gaifan, jianbing. We looked up pictures & recipes for everything. Because they're kids, we looked up a lot of desserts but they were lively & happy about it all./5

I got some new recipes to try but I think the students found some peace & acceptance about their families and cultures. As we were winding down, one girl said "I'm kinda embarrassed I had a grilled cheese for lunch." And every one cheered "NAH we LOVE GRILLED CHEESE TOO!" /6

We laughed & looked up fancy grilled cheeses with add-ins like apple & onion. It was so fun & it was great to hear kids say 'that Afghan flatbread looks delish. I'm going to make that' & "I'm going to try jerk chicken. I like spicy.' (look out, kids, you have no idea)/7

'Kevin' said "when I have some Chinese food for lunch, I'll show you guys" & everyone said "ok cool!" There was no judgment. No one turned up their nose at the mention of anything. They were accepting & kind & really excited about food. It was good for them, I think. #equity /8

I hope we address food insecurity too because I was also aware that there are kids online whose families are out of work due to #COVID19 . I hope they feel included & welcome too. The sense of inclusion & belonging is a start. I was proud of them today. /n

//thank you for the kind words and responses/retweets. It does matter. Also, here are some of the foods we talked about trying: masala dosa; Afghan bolani with egg, potato, and green onion; chicken gaifan.

We also discovered that some kind of crepe/pancake/thin-fried-bread is common across continents as a "food holder." Makes sense.

Oh & shout out to my gr8 girls who said "hot sauce is life" and also convinced me that I need to get a travel size to take with me everywhere. Lol.

Correction: not *sameer* but samber/sambar; a south Indian lentil stew that is served with idli, dosa, or rice. In fact, I kept calling these 'rice puffs' until several kids said 'Geez, Mme, that's idli.' (idli - fluffy steamed fermented rice/lentil cake). #learningthroughfood

//ALSO, a big reflection that #INDIGENOUS food was not represented in the conversation; SO important too along with acceptance, food security, diversity, & truth. I'll make this a weekly thing (having lunch together) where we can also discuss/find out about #INDIGENOUS foods.

//Wow, I never expected this response and thank you ALL for sharing your 'food discrimination' stories. Today, during lunch hour, we are having 'online lunch' together and will talk about more dishes & recipes. We are excited, at home, to try Afghani bread and dosa this weekend.