Today officially kicked off the Food and Identity Unit for this year’s sixth graders! The cross-curricular program is a D-E tradition for our youngest Middle School students within their MESH (Math, English, Science, and History) classes. “This unit is about building community by looking at who we are as a community,” said English Teacher Ms. Macone. It began with a multicultural breakfast in the Wharton Lessin Dining Hall prepared by Chef Alex, Sous Chef Fernando, and their team. There were four stations with foods that were personally meaningful to the food service staff and faculty—a Japanese breakfast of miso soup, trout roe, pickled turnips, and steamed white rice (a nod to Chef Alex’s wife and children’s heritage); a Dominican breakfast of taro root puree, and fried cheese, salami, and eggs with passionfruit juice (representative of Chef Fernando’s background); a Peruvian quinoa porridge and soursop juice; as well as bagels and lox. Students were encouraged to “try something new and engage in conversation with someone new,” said Ms. Macone. Neeva P. ’32 said she gravitated toward the taro puree because it was like one of her favorite foods, mashed potatoes. Both Allison H. ’32 and Ethan Che ’32 said they’d never tried pickled turnips before—but enjoyed them. Students resumed the day’s lesson in Hajjar Auditorium, where they were asked to share their own memorable experiences involving traditional family meals. As our sixth graders learned, every flavor tells a story!