Parents from across DC advocate for FoodPrints
At budget hearings and forums, and in personal letters to DCPS leaders and the Mayor, parents are speaking about why FoodPrints is important to their school and their families, and why they support city funding for the program.
Here are some highlights of what parents are saying:
“FoodPrints is about so much more than food. It is about our relationships to the environment, the natural world, health, and each other.”
“Volunteering in FoodPrints classes is something that really motivates me — and lots of other parents — to participate at my school. It’s a program that gets both my kids and me excited about getting involved with DCPS — something we need MUCH more of throughout the city!”
“FoodPrints is the one activity my 6th grader misses most after leaving for middle school. It is consistently my 2nd grader’s favorite activity on the school calendar.”
“I volunteer in the FoodPrints classroom as often as possible because it is always so inspiring to see students work together as a team to create a meal that they all share; watching even the youngest students learn to problem solve, self-regulate, practice teamwork, and communicate effectively because they want to contribute to the greater good as much and as well as possible is absolutely incredible.”
“I have a background in clinical nutrition and have worked in hospitals and clinics in DC that serve lower income populations and often when I met with patients, it was too late to have much impact on their health … Introducing DCPS students and their families to healthy foods that taste delicious, in a manner that allows them to feel invested in the cultivation and preparation, is the best way to impact their health later in life.”
“FoodPrints sparks curiosity about botany, sustainability, cooking, entomology, and nutrition…”
“Thanks to the garden based learning that FoodPrints engages in, my son better understands why we need to have a healthy planet… he knows now that our food needs water and rich dirt to grow and provide us with the vitamins and nutrients that healthy bodies require.”
“FoodPrints… instills in kids a unique type of discipline and life-long skill that come from understanding the sources of food and then preparing meals using those ingredients.”
“I can appreciate that you have many budgetary pressures upon you but would hope that you would continue to support a program that has proven to be very successful on so many levels — academically, socially and emotionally and physically!”
“Now, preparing fresh family meals is something that he helps with on a regular basis, which has elevated dinners at our house… they are no longer something that keeps mommy from playing with him, but making dinner is an activity for us to do together.”
