Issue link: http://educator.cta.org/i/1190776
Hunter, who is Laotian, learned to cook from her mother while growing up in nearby Porterville. " We raised our own vegetables, and I witnessed the slaugh- tering of animals. My dad hunted. Today everything is so prepackaged and processed." A fe w ye a r s a g o , a s a si n g l e m o m , sh e b e c a m e concerned about the nutrition of her children, who considered Hot Cheetos and soda to be lunch. When discussing nutrition, she asked students to list healthy foods, and they could only name salad. She began advo- cating for healthier food choices in her school's cafeteria, which now has fresh vegetables and a salad bar. It was time, Hunter decided, to expand their food options. To help create PFN, she applied for and received an IFT grant last year in the amount of $17,545. e videos by Outlaw Consulting — posted on You- Tube and on the community 's Facebook page — have drawn hundreds of followers and instilled a great deal of pride in this community, which is mostly Latino and low-income. Tribe and worked with Barbara McQuillen, a teacher at Del Norte High School and member of Del Norte Teachers Association . "A part of me always felt something was missing, so I immersed myself in learning Yurok," Gensaw says. After enrolling at College of the Redwoods, he became an intern in the Yurok Tribe Language Program and worked with elders whose first language was Yurok. "I was very blessed to have the opportunity," Gen- saw says. "ey became like family. I documented and recorded more than 1,000 hours with nearly a dozen elders. at time contains some of my fondest memories, and also some of my saddest, because everyone I worked with has now passed away." e Yurok Tribe, the largest in California with 6,400 enrolled members, partnered with UC Berkeley to create the Yurok Teacher Institute, which has the goal of restor- ing the language and developing credentialed Yurok language teachers in public schools. Gensaw earned his credential through the program. He later worked with Andrew Garrett, director of UC Berkeley's Yurok Language Project, and a team of elders to create an online Yurok language dictionar y and d at ab a se. Gen saw al s o h elp ed develop a free language app for Android and iPhones, and created online Yurok lessons for Quizlet and Kahoot! to help other educators. He was recently approached by College of the Red- woods to teach a Yurok class as a pilot project, which he finds exciting. "It means everything to me having Yurok as a living language again," says Gensaw. "It's changed my life and helped me grow into a stronger man. It's a way to honor my elders. It's a way to give Native American students resilience so they can find out more about themselves and their culture. To be part of taking an almost extinct language to a living, f lourishing lan- guage has been awesome." "One parent teared up seeing their child on video, and it made me want to cry," says Hunter. "At first the kids were stiff and uncomfortable being filmed, but soon they forgot they were on camera and became very confident." Her advice for educators wanting to try something outside the box is to have fun. "Dive in and go for it. When you overprepare, you drown from the stress and don't get to enjoy it with the kids. We learn as we go. If I had waited until I was an expert, we'd never get there." See our video at cta.org/SomphaneHunterIFT, and ch eck out th e Poplar Food Netw ork videos at facebook.com/poplarcommunity. GENSAW continued from page 25 HUNTER continued from page 24 "It means everything to me having Yurok as a living language again. It's a way to give Native American students resilience." Hunter on the line with her young chefs. 26 cta.org