Fight Child Malnutrition in Rural Guatemala

Pueblo a Pueblo nutrition educator Sandy Mendoza has been hard at work, and so have her students. Sandy teaches cooking classes in five different schools each year. Each class consists of fourth, fifth, or sixth graders...and their moms!

Sandy explains, “The nutrition training program grew out of something we noticed in our school garden program a few years ago: there were many vegetables that no one harvested!” After asking around, Sandy realized that families did not know how to prepare these vegetables. Sandy’s cooking classes are designed to introduce students and their mothers to new vegetables - why they are important to a balanced diet and how to cook them. “What I do is show my students how to incorporate new ingredients into recipes they’re already familiar with,” she explains. “There are lots of easy ways to get kids to eat new vegetables!”

Each of Sandy’s classes begins with a nutrition lesson. Sandy starts by asking her students to fill in a diagram of the “olla familiar” - the Guatemalan equivalent of the food pyramid - to reflect the way they eat at home. “It serves as a sort of diagnostic exercise,” she notes. “Many times it is clear that mothers aren’t aware of how large a role vegetables should play in their family’s diet.”

Sandy then introduced the ingredient of the day: in this case, spinach!  At each of the five schools, Sandy showed participants to make stuffed spinach fritters. The participants stuffed theirs with cheese, but this is a dish they can also fill with shredded meat or any other vegetables when they recreate it at home - the possibilities are endless! The class also made a lentil-based salad full of chopped veggies and “Hawaiian-style” pasta (a pasta salad with ham and pineapple). While plenty of participants had their doubts about this last flavor combination, the whole meal was a hit.

Sandy is always happy to see returning participants give new students tips. “They say, ‘I learned this last year - let me help you,’” she explains. To Sandy, this is a sign that her classes are having an impact. Her students leave with knowledge that lasts, inspired to bring what they’ve learned home to their own kitchens. Thank you for supporting Sandy and Pueblo a Pueblo as we empower two generations of home chefs to cook healthier food for healthier families!