Spotlight on CLAL
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EATING MATTERS
In America today, teenagers’
eating habits are putting them at risk for developing chronic medical
conditions. How can we break this dangerous cycle of eating disorders and
help them gain a healthy and constructive relationship with food?
Enter Eating Matters, a new program designed to help young adults
understand nutrition from a broad cultural context. Using multimedia
resources, students gain a more positive attitude toward the role of food by
learning about other societies’ eating habits, as well as the values
connected to it in their own society. Created by students and faculty from Columbia
University’s Teachers College, and led by Project Coordinator Joshua Halberstam,
Ph.D. for CLAL, it offers a fresh approach to learning about diet. By
reaching high school and college students, teachers can have an impact on how they think
about food and consumption.
Two conferences for select groups of teachers, nutritionists, religious
leaders, and other professionals were held as part of the project. The
groups discussed how we define people by their food, what we consume and
why. Prof. Judith Goldstein, an anthropologist from Vassar College, looked
at the politics of eating and the current landscape of food. Rabbi Joshua Gutoff of the Jewish Theological Seminary talked about how
educators can draw on Jewish sources to teach about the role of food, and
how the spiritual, ethical and communal relationships towards eating reflect
Jewish values. Participating rabbis brought special texts about food which
they presented for discussion. These teachings are being compiled as
an educational resource for anyone interested in the intersection of Jewish
learning and the meaning of how and what we eat.
“We really are what we eat, and what we eat is a function of personal taste,
cultural norms, and ethnic traditions,” said Rabbi Brad Hirschfield, a
conference speaker. “How those three come together to nourish both our
bodies and our spirits is what Eating Matters is all about.”
CLAL wishes to thank the McDonald’s Corporation and all those
involved in the resolution of the “Block v. McDonald’s Corporation” and
related litigation for helping to facilitate this work.
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