Chef Khadija Ahmed sprinkles spices on chicken that will be used in a stew inspired by North African cuisine. Ahmed says she based the recipes for this project on meals she makes for her own children — merging African and American flavors and ingredients. Photo: Ari Snyder/The World

時事英語 Current Events Course at Matsusho College 2022 summer

Maine school offers African-inspired meal options to students

In a high school kitchen in Portland, Maine, Khadija Ahmed showed food service workers how to cook a meal. It is one not often found on school menus in the state: chicken and kale stew, a common dish in North African countries.

“This is the spice for the chicken, and you’re making the other spice for the greens, right?” Ahmed said to one of the cafeteria workers at Deering High School in Portland. “So, give me more for the chicken than for the kale. Don’t be stingy!”

Ahmed is from the Democratic Republic of the Congo in Central Africa. She works at Good Shepherd Food Bank and runs an African grocery delivery business.

She also created the recipes for this school district’s effort to increase meal options at high school cafeterias. She said they’re a mix of African and American flavors and ingredients. She based them on dishes that she makes for her own children.

Every day, millions of students in the United States eat free or low-cost meals offered under the National School Lunch Program. The offerings have to meet minimum nutritional guidelines, but they often lack a certain imagination. In some districts, however, that’s starting to change.

Adding Diversity To School Meals

Maine might seem like an unlikely place to test-run school lunches based on regional African dishes. After all, it’s the whitest state in the country. But Portland is the state’s largest city and is home to a growing number of immigrants. They come from Angola, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Burundi and Rwanda, all countries in Africa. Students there speak more than 50 languages.

“The reason we wanted to kind of start this project was just looking at the school itself and how diverse it is. But also looking at the school meal and not seeing much diversity in it,” said Mercia Ckaba Thomas. She’s with Cultivating Community, a local food and agriculture nonprofit that came up with the idea for this project.

Thomas was born in Gabon, in central Africa, but she went to school in Portland. She remembers eating a lot of hot dogs and breaded fish.

This semester, the district asked high school students to taste-test three new dishes. They were kidney beans with spiced beef and cabbage slaw, chickpeas and chicken over yellow rice, and chicken and kale stew.

Image 1. Sample portions of chicken and kale stew over rice. The dish was based on North African cuisine. It was offered to high school students in Maine as part of a project to test new dishes. Photo: Ari Snyder/The World

Getting more students to eat school meals depends, in part, on drumming up support at district taste-testing days. One was held recently at Portland High School.

Rosa Pedro, who is from Angola, is a freshman at the school. She said she’s eaten her share of french fries and pizza, so she was happy to try the chicken and kale stew.

“I love it,” Rosa said. “Just needs a little more salt and stuff like that, but I love it.”

Moving Forward With African-Inspired Dishes

Lily Chaleff is the schools and youth program manager at Cultivating Community. She said broadening school meal options is about more than just representation.

“School meals, including both breakfast and lunch, are a huge [part] of food security,” she said. Food security means that all people have access to the foods they need to be healthy.

Chaleff also hopes the district can begin to include halal meat into its dishes. Halal meat is meat that can be eaten under Islamic dietary laws. Islam is a religion practiced by Muslims. Many Muslims can only eat meat prepared in the way these laws suggest. Chaleff said that serving halal meat will help ensure Muslim students have the same access to school meals.

After the most recent taste-test event, 85 percent of students who tried the chicken and kale stew gave it a positive review. But Chaleff noted that many chose not to try the dish at all.

They will have plenty more opportunities next fall. Students gave positive feedback this semester. So schools in Portland will soon be serving up jollof rice, spiced beef, cornmeal porridge and other African-inspired dishes.

Many new immigrants are arriving in Portland. Ahmed hopes the recipes she’s created can be a sign of welcome.

“So, we welcome you. Guess what? We know what you like,” Ahmed said.

Starting school in a new country, in a new language, is hard enough, she said. Maybe lunch, at least, can offer a taste of something familiar.

For Educational purposes.

By PRX, adapted by Newsela staff

Published:06/09/2022