Feeding the next generation

We have to start them young, as the saying goes. This is why, more than ever, we need to teach good habits to schoolchildren and the young in our own households. How do we change a whole generation to eat better and have healthier, more productive lives?

Start in school. In Korea, children are taught to eat good food at a young age. My niece, who is Korean, only gives her children freshly-cooked food and would not think about giving them fast food or instant noodles or TV dinners (for the Boomer generation, TV dinners were the hit in the 60s as you could microwave a complete meal to eat in front of what was the latest appliance then – a television or TV set, ergo TV dinner.)

They are also taught in Korea to pack up trash, clean up their garbage and throw their paper wastes in proper bins. At a young age, sorting waste is already part of the culture.

I have been wanting to put up Earth Gardens in public schools where children can learn how to grow vegetables. Today, you can at least bring your children to urban gardens such as the one in the center of Bonifacio Global City or the Sweet Spring farm of Kiko Pangilinan in Alfonso, Cavite. Kids must know what food looks like, how it is grown, for them to better appreciate its value.

Follow through at home. For continuity and consistency, we also practice what the school preaches by following the same good practices at home. We sort trash to recyclable, biodegradeable and not recyclable. We also serve good food and not convenience foods. The whole idea is to convert the present and future generations to what we were in the 60s. We bought milk in glass bottles, even if they were reused soda bottles with a cap made up of rolled banana leaves. For sanitation and health safety, we can now use glass bottles with better covers but still reusable.

Food literacy. We educate our young in school and we teach them by serving better food at home. Food and nutrition must be subjects taught in elementary school and parents will help with good practices at home. We teach them to eat more vegetables and fruits and be able to name fruits in season. If we bought every fruit in season, children will learn more about mangosteen and