Fall 2021

Food is necessary for survival, obviously, but it’s really more than that. According to Nicholas Williams of ThinkingFood.org, “Food is who we are, where we come from, how we live, what we believe, and who we will become.” He goes on to write, “Through the foods we consume and the foods we make–and don’t–we stake claims in our identities and stories.” Storytelling is a "fundamental part of being human," writes Christine Hennebury of the CBC. Stories are universal, common to every culture and society. They help us understand where we fit and shape our perspective of the world. Stories also teach us values, knowledge, and morals important not just to our culture, but ones that are also important to understanding other people, cultures, and societies. Through stories, we gain an understanding of other people's experiences, and we can take lessons from their lives and apply them to our own. 

Food is a "powerful vehicle for storytelling," and through this project, Instructor Kristin Henderson and her ENG 252 students studied Our Foodways: Stories of Inheritance and Legacy created by Jefferson States's Pi Pi Chapter of Phi Theta Kappa and read food-related stories by Southern storyteller Sean Dietrich, known as Sean of the South. Students then created Thinglink projects about the Inheritance and Legacy of Food in their own lives. Please enjoy some of our projects.