Vamos a Comer

Once a week for the past 5 weeks, we ran a cooking workshop at the hogar. The idea of Vamos a Comer! Una Semana de Once Internaciónal (Lets Eat! One Week of International Snacks) was nutritional and educational. By introducing new meals to snack time, we tried to spark the kids’ interest in eating different foods, inspiring them to appreciate new tastes while learning about the world outside of Chile. Because of the lack of funding, the hogar cannot afford to feed the kids as nutritionally as it probably should. Therefore, the kids eat foods that are inexpensive, redundant, easy to prepare, and unbalanced, especially during once, which consists of bread with jelly, dulce de leche, cheese, pate, avocado, or butter. Through Vamos a Comer! we introduced a week of snacks that offered the kids variety with an international twist.

The purpose was not only to bring new foods to the hogar, but to promote an awareness and respect for other parts of the world outside of where the kids have grown up. They don’t have a broad understanding of geography and cultures outside of Chile. As ambassadors and world travelers, volunteers can bring an international flavor to the hogar that the children would not otherwise typically be exposed to. We made menus and invites to get the girls and staff excited about the project. While the kids ate, we talked about the country of the day’s location, history, current events and how that country and its culture can be similar, yet different to others like it, like Japan and China, for example, and how calling any Asian chinita, like our very own Tia Kaori, is not appropriate if they’re actually japonesa.


We wanted the kids to help with the cooking to let them experience the creativity with their own hands. The sensation of the experience gave them a tangible reality of the importance of cooking. If “we are what we eat,” it is important to teach kids that what we put into our system is what we get out, reflecting a healthy body and a healthy mind. The immediate effects from eating are gratifying, especially for children who have voracious appetites. By spending quality time working together to make their food, we hoped to teach them more of an appreciation for what they eat and how it affects them directly.

In the end, mini pizzas were a big hit. Que rico! The fried rice turned out excellent, but the teaspoon of pepper we added made it spicy for their sensitive palates. Me pica! Me pica! Tacos turned out to be more like enchiladas, and they got a thumbs down because the girls didn’t like the refried beans. Pirotos? Guaquetela! The haroset was also not too popular because the kids refused to eat something with red wine in it. Tiene vino tinto? And the PBJ was a divided dish. Some liked the peanut butter, but not together with the jelly. Es de los EEUU? The girls generally liked the foods that were the easiest to prepare. Usually they eat everything, so we didn’t expect them to be so picky. They’re so much more sensitive than I thought. The older girls were especially interested in helping out. Even the girls who don’t do much, but religiously tune in to Rebelde or look for trouble, were excited to cook and comer. Getting them involved in something they looked forward to turned out to be the best part of the project.