Hungry for Appreciation

I love cooking.  Always have.  But it's not easy for me to do anymore, and probably never will be as easy as it used to be.  Lately I've been trying to do more home cooking anyway, because it's much more cost-effective and healthier for my family.  My husband and I have a pretty well-organized dance for getting my food prep needs set up and making my cooking procedures as painless and simple as possible.  Even with all that readiness, it still takes an hour or more of serious physical effort for me to make a meal though.

So you can imagine how I felt after that effort, trying to sit down and enjoy my food, with a non-stop stream of complaints flowing from the sweet mouths of my three babes.  They didn't like the way the sauce was mixed with the pasta.  They didn't like the sausage to be in the pasta, either.  Didn't I know they don't like onions and sweet peppers?  I sat there and listened to one thing after another, the three of them taking turns at it, until I snapped.  I ordered them all to be silent for the rest of the meal, and reiterated that they would eat every bite of the reasonable amounts we had served them.  

For the rest of the meal I stewed over it.  They were so ungrateful for what we have.  Of course I felt unappreciated and annoyed by their lack of respect to me and the effort I put into cooking.  But I wanted them to learn something bigger, something more important than just being thankful to Mom for taking the time to prepare something better than fast food.  That's when I had the idea about the report.

I assigned my kids to do a report on childhood and world hunger.  It started the next night.  In every step of the process I tried to incorporate skills they practice in school, and always their work on the project waited until after their regular homework was done.  I printed off fact sheets I found online, and had them use their highlighters to find the essential information.  Then the three of them chose what they thought were the 10 most important facts. 

The next night, my oldest combined the 10 facts into a written report, which I said had to be at least 20 sentences long.  Tonight, he presented his report to the family, and his younger sisters were charged with the task of writing down 5 things they learned.  Here, using their nicknames to preserve their privacy, are the results of their efforts.  I've transcribed it just the way they wrote it, imperfect and wonderful. 

Bandit learned:  Being malnourished is bad for you.  870 million are chronically hungry.  11 million kids get free or reduced price breakfast.  In the US, 16 million go hungry.  5 million kids die because of hunger.

Little Bit learned:  5 million people die because of the effects of hunger.  Some people get free lunch to help fight hunger.  Hunger causes sadness, anger, and trouble learning.  The world already makes enough food for everyone.   People go hungry because they can't afford to buy food or they can't grow it.

And big brother Bubby with their source material:  

World Hunger

This is about world hunger.  In this report there are 10 facts.  Please take it serously. Going hungry is the cause of mallnutrithshon and other health problems.  Effects of mallnutrition can be fatel, 5 millon kids die because of the effects.  870 millon people are cronicly hungry.  Cronicly hungry means the almost never eat [enough food].  It the US 16 millon kids go hungry.  Kids who ar mallnurished are likle [likely] to be sad, angry, have truble making friend and learning will be hard.  11 millon kids get free or reduced price school breakfast, 21 millon kids get free or reduced price lunch and 3 millon get free food in the summer too.  85% of low income famlies wish they could make health meals but only 50% do, do to the fact healthy food is expencive.  The world produces enough food for everyone but the main problem is people are too poor or their land is to small to grow food.  Now you know how bad world hunger really is.

I couldn't be more pleased with the lessons our family learned this week.  I even forgave that it wasn't actually 20 sentences.  I think all of us are a lot more appreciative for the plentiful food we have, and the simple joy of sharing our good food together as a family.

And as a bonus, tonight I spent an hour preparing boneless skinless chicken thighs, with stuffing and peas.  My wonderful children were generous with praise, they even said it was the BEST. CHICKEN. EVER.  I totally agree.  With everything that this disease has tried to take from us, every meal we share together is the best ever.