This is how it went each day: Juan, Marcela, and I would clean and prepare our space for class.
I'd make my way to the living room, where I would wait to hear that friendly little beep of the Fundación Niños de los Andes van, full of kids, some of whom got out and waited on the sidewalk for whatever was next.
Little eyes were uncertain.
Where am I?
Who are these people?
What is happening here?
We offered the warmest greetings, and welcomed all inside, to have a little chat at this table.
Welcome! Thank you for coming and participating in The Food of the Future!
Why is it called that? Because you are the future, and whatever you eat will be the food of the future. In a way, the future starts now, because what you do tomorrow will be a result of what you learn today.
Today, we will learn about the life cycle of a lettuce plant, as well as how to sow and transplant lettuce.
We will also make bread!
And create delicious works of art, which we will then photograph!
If there is time (and there is always time) we will paint display art for our table presentation later this month.
We did those things until the van returned, and beeped, at which point we would hug good-bye and they would be on their way.
For us, providing this workshop was an experience full of discovery. Through conversation and finished sentences, we found out which children had experience with plants and making their own food.
Little impulsive hands showed great control when trusted with sharp tools.
Big strong boys were as gentle as little lettuce seedlings needed them to be. All were spoken to with respect, and all took full advantage of the chance to learn and do for themselves. At the end of each day we heard, “When am I coming back?”
We longed to spend more time together, but had to bid farewell each afternoon, and clean our space for the next day.
Five days, twenty five kids, fifty hands and eyes, a million shy smiles and proud greetings over the next few weeks. “Teacher! He doesn’t believe me! Tell him I made bread at your house!”
“Mami! Did you bring more lettuce seeds yet? I have permission to plant them!”
“Look, how much my plant grew in just two weeks!”
It is not some space age nonsense to say that those moments felt like all points in time were happening at once. That, in a way, it feels like people live forever in the people around them.
Choices to harm or help create an impact that far outlasts one human lifespan.
These moments we call past, present, and future flow into each other as a series of causes and effects, from one of us to another.
A familiar peace and elation, seeing the accomplished smile of a child who has surprised himself, is presently as close as I can get to hanging out with a friend who taught me how to grow little food eaters. The light in those young eyes makes me think of Shelly Bowe.
ALS ended her life, but couldn’t touch the beauty of the way she chose to live it.
She grew a community around the basic human need to feed ourselves and each other, co-founded Food Roots and made everyone feel like that kid, discovering new capabilities.
To teach the children from the Fundación Niños de los Andes with my friends, who have also been inspired by Shelly’s work, felt like sneaking out a sly message in a bottle, that we never wrote. We just found it, memorized it, and threw it back into the water, hoping it will float through time to some day when all that’s left of us is information, hopefully well-conveyed. Lessons taught, lived, and maybe even learned.
