Anne Fronteddu firmly believes food is a catalyst for social connection, and it’s the fundamental pillar on which she bases her classes as the foods teacher at St. John Brebeuf High School.
“We’re so connected digitally, and I get rid of it all and use food to sit down and get to know these kids and connect with them on a different level,” she said. “It’s hard to share a meal with someone and not get to know them a little bit better.”
Fronteddu said she brings family, multi-generations and connectivity into her teaching, emphasizing how important our elders are because it only takes one generation to lose a tradition.
Food and language are the two pillars a culture is built on, and Fronteddu said there are many stories and emotions tied up in food.
“Pulling a recipe off the Internet doesn’t do it justice,” she said. One of the ways Fronteddu reinforces the importance of the stories behind the recipes is by bringing in guest speakers to share about how they grew up and having them teach a recipe from beginning to end.
She also gives her students an assignment to spend time with a loved one, listening to stories of their childhood and cooking with them.
“What the students often learn is that the recipe they make isn’t the one that’s written down,” she said.
The students present their family recipe to the class and teach classmates how to make the dish. Fronteddu said students have a tremendous amount of pride in learning about their history, and their family loves it too.
“They get to spend time together; they get to chat and connect. It’s hard to do that as teenagers,” she said.
Another focus of the program is on living a healthy lifestyle. Fronteddu helps students learn the difference between cooking from scratch and ultra-processed foods, and the difference in nourishment when you eat alone versus sharing a meal with others.
She said most of us eat on the go and have lost the enjoyment of food and connection, so Fronteddu built meal time into the foods program. Every class, they sit down for 15 to 20 minutes and eat together while giving thanks and sharing stories.
Students also learn about the food industry and where our food comes from, looking at industry, agriculture, commercial fishing, economics, environmental concerns and more.
“We have access to food all year long, no seasons. We don’t understand the process it takes to get the food here,” she said. “Even in the complicated world we live in, students can make a difference. They make a vote for what they want every time they purchase something at the grocery store.”
The foods program also focuses on health, but not just about the food we put into our bodies. Fronteddu said it’s about how we put food in our bodies – the mental, emotional and physical aspect of health.
“We have access to everything and yet we live in one of the most unhealthy areas in the world. Why is that?” Fronteddu discusses this question with her students and contrasts our lifestyles with what people do in the “blue zones.”
Blue zones are regions where people are said to live longer than average, such as Sardinia, Italy, Costa Rica and Okinawa Prefecture, Japan. This is attributed to practising a traditional lifestyle, having family and community support for elders and eating locally produced food.
“I get up on my high horse because I believe this is one of the most important courses students will take in high school. What are you going to use for the rest of your life? What to eat is a decision you make three times a day for the rest of your life: what you eat, what influences your decisions and how to make the best ones,” Fronteddu said.
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