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Public Health students release cookbook

Posted on Nov 17, 2009 in Features

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School of Public Health students and the Student Association for Graduate Education (SAGE) are selling the cookbook “Breaking Bread: A Collection of Local and Global Community Recipes” to benefit local charities that work with mothers and children in the community. The cookbook has 32 recipes, representing a variety of countries and cultures, including the United States, Japan, Ethiopia, Italy, Bangladesh, Kenya and the Philippines.

“SAGE works with a series of charities including AIDS Alabama, Susan G. Komen and Magic City Harvest that either advocate or work with maternal and child populations within the community,” said Laura Lieb, SAGE member.

The idea for the cookbook originated in a class Lieb was taking that focused on maternal and child nutrition. During the course each student was asked to bring in a meal that represented their culture and present a PowerPoint about the meal. While eating the meals, students also analyzed the nutritional content.

“The class met twice a week and we had a meal once a week and during that time we broke bread,” said class instructor Dr. Frank Franklin.

Franklin believes both the class and cookbook are great successes because they taught students that people do not eat solely for nutritional value.

“Everyone is from somewhere or belongs to some race or ethnic group, and each race or ethnic group has a culture around food, religious traditions around food, festivals around food, family around food, myths around food,” said Franklin. “The idea was to share those with the people in the class as well as the nutritional content.”

Although the cookbook has recipes representing many different countries and cultures, the students found that many cultures contain a common food combination.

“It is very common for most cultures to eat some combination of beans, grains and greens, and you can get many of your nutrients from them,” said Franklin.

Franklin said although the original intent of weekly meals was to provide an alternative way to learn about nutrition, the class also had the unintended benefit of social bonding.

“The students came from three or four different schools and they formed a social bond by sharing a meal together,” said Franklin. “So this was a bread breaker instead of an ice breaker.”

Lieb said the course taught her that other cultures view mealtime differently than Americans.

“I think they appreciate and value their time together and sit down and utilize the meal not just as a time to get food in their bodies but a time to commune and learn from one another, so it is more of a community event,” she said.

Through the course and cookbook, students were able to experience mealtime as a community event as well, which, according to Franklin, isn’t as common in America today.

“We have forgotten the basic part of humanity that is connected to food, and I think the class demonstrated that because of the social bonding that occurred,” said Franklin.

The cookbooks are $10; all proceeds go to charities. Cookbooks are available for purchase at the SAGE-sponsored bake sale Wednesday, Nov. 18 from 9 a.m.-2 p.m. in Ryals Public Health Building or by contacting Laura Lieb at llieb@uab.edu. 

Email: hncaygle@uab.edu




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