Community Cookbook: Stories Through Food

Students create a community cookbook that shares family stories, highlights cultural differences, and reveals how much we have in common through food. By interviewing family members about the stories behind cherished recipes, students explore identity, tradition, and connection while developing research, writing, and mathematical skills.

The project launches with a visit from the Cadena Brothers, local pizza business owners who share the story of their business and what pizza means to their family. Students then rotate through hook activities including a caramel corn demonstration, taste-testing unique foods, and building with food—sparking curiosity about the cultural and scientific aspects of cooking.

Students select family recipes and conduct interviews with family or community members to uncover the stories behind the dishes. They research the geography of ingredients, tracing where foods originate and how agricultural technology has shaped civilizations. In math, students apply proportional reasoning to scale recipes and make ingredient substitutions. In science, they explore properties of matter and chemical reactions through hands-on cooking experiments like fizzing sherbet (acid-base reactions) and smoothie-making.

Each student develops a recipe page with a narrative story explaining the significance of their dish. The class collaboratively designs the cookbook's layout, cover, and marketing plan. The finished cookbook will be sold to the community, with proceeds funding scholarships for students to attend the 7th grade overnight camp field trip at the end of the school year.