Autumn 2015

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STACIE’S STRATEGIES FOR ACCESSING CULTURE VIA FOOD BRING DIVERSITY TO YOUR VEGGIE PATCH 1 4 CONSULT WITH YOUR COMMUNITY TO DEVELOP A MULTICULTURAL MENU “Our garden has a number of vegetables and herbs from around the world that are starting to produce well. We have sugar cane, basil, Thai mint, Vietnamese mint and many more. Encourage families and staff to share cuttings of herbs or vegetables that they use in traditional foods. Garden to table works great in our centre! The children will pick the required herbs for our chef which brings authentic flavour to the day’s meals.” 2 CONSULT WITH FAMILIES ABOUT THEIR CHILDREN’S FAVOURITE MEALS “I always ask about children’s dietary requirements. Ask families to share recipes and incorporate them where possible,” advises Stacie. She says this provides a wonderful insight into their family life, culture, and gives you opportunities to be sincerely inclusive, and give all children in the service an opportunity to experience another culture. Stacie said it works even better if you can get the family to visit the service and teach/share the preparation with everyone. “One Mum, who is originally from China, came to our centre to help us with Chinese New Year celebrations. We enjoyed dumplings and made themed bookmarks. The Mum told us that they haven’t been able to celebrate their new year in the 3 years that they have been in Australia. She thanked us for making her feel welcome and for supporting their culture.” 3 ASK ABOUT FOOD PREFERENCES AT ENROLMENT Stacie recommends sharing your existing menu and finding ways to incorporate the family’s culture. Some of the questions that you might like to incorporate are; What foods do your family like to eat? What are your child’s favourite foods? What foods do you encourage for your child’s health? Are there any foods you like to avoid? What time of day does your child typically eat meals? How/where do you feed your child? Does your child feed him/herself? What eating utensils does your child typically use? Who usually eats meals with your child? Which foods do you eat on holidays or special occasions? Do you have any recipes that you would like to share for our menu? We have a community vegetable garden. Would you like to suggest any herbs or vegetables that we could grow together? Stacie shares an inspiring example: “About 6 months ago we realised that we had a lot of vegetarian families. This led us to explore the food practices of families much more deeply. We emailed all families to advise that we were changing our menu and asked if they could share with us any traditional meals that their children loved at home. From this survey, we picked and tested about 50 different recipes. For 6 weeks the children ate a different meal each day! The menu we have today is very multicultural and offers a vegetarian option every day. We also love that it is based on the recipes that the children picked, therefore the ones they liked best!” 5 USE THE CULTURAL KNOWLEDGE IN YOUR TEAM Stacie believes that this is essential. “What makes this work possible is that I have a team of educators and a chef who really support it. They are very on board and share their own culture. I find learning about different cultures fascinating and a lot of our discussion about culture comes from talking about food. It’s an easy way to break down those barriers. My team will bring and share different cultural foods like dumplings or jellyfish salad. Some of them we instantly love and some of them take a bit longer. I always ask them for recipes for my own home cooking. I hope it shows my interest and support for them to include their culture and family life in our centre”. The end result of this is educators who feel empowered to offer their cultural knowledge to better support children in the service. 5 SHOW YOU SINCERELY CARE “My team are genuinely interested in learning about and supporting families’ culture. Our families are closer and want to share their stories because we have shown them that we will act on the information they share. It also has given us some great insights into children’s behaviour. One of the interesting things that we learned is that many of the children are used to and prefer eating spicy food. We actually had to find ways that children could make their food spicier to encourage them to eat!” Would you like support in designing a more culturally inclusive approach to food in your service? The Bicultural Support Service at MDA work with ECEC services to help meet the specific needs of children and families from culturally and linguistically diverse (CALD) backgrounds. We provide mentoring, role modelling, cultural conversations and practical support, enabling educators to gain skills, knowledge and confidence to successfully include children and families from CALD backgrounds. The information and advice service can be contacted on ph 3337 5427 or email bsa@mdaltd.org.au For more resources on food and cultural inclusion visit us on Pinterest www.pinterest.com/BSSMDA/ or Facebook www.facebook.com/BiculturalSupportServiceMDA 1. EYLF pg 13. 2. Dr Donna Gabaccia, We are what we eat: Ethnic food and the making of Americans. Harvard University Press; 1998. 3. Christine Gross-Loh, Parenting Without Borders. Penguin Books, 2013. 4. Source – MDA, CSW Fact Sheets. Various CSWs. 5. UNICEF global databases, 2014, based on MICS, DHS, and other nationally representative surveys, 2009. 12 IN THE LOOP
IPSP Specialist Equipment FREE SERVICE HIGH ONGOING NEEDS EQUIPMENT Services enrolling children with high ongoing physical needs can access our large range of equipment to support their inclusion under the Inclusion and Professional Support Program, funded by the Australian Government. This is a FREE service for Early Education and Care Services in Queensland. Some examples of the equipment available to hire includes: RIFTON ACTIVITY CHAIR The Rifton Activity Chair is designed with two bases and a large range of optimal accessories and provides excellent postural support. It can be configured as a basic chair with arm supports (castors are optional) or as a Hi/Lo chair (for easy transfer and ease of access to activities at a lower height) with full postural supports. STANDARD BASIC CHAIR HI/LO CHAIR The chair is versatile, adaptable and adjustments can be made while the child is seated, without using tools. As our equipment is aimed at supporting inclusion, the chair can be used for meal times and active learning. If your service has a child who is low functioning and has a tendency to rock, the backrest spring (an optional accessory) allows for calming through self-generated motion safely. The spring column can be locked when not in use. Talk to our Occupational Therapist to discuss individual high ongoing needs of the children in your care. JENX PRONE STANDER ELECTRIC CHANGE TABLE An adjustable, mobile prone standing frame with gas strut assisted adjustments. It can be used for children with moderate to high support needs. The standing frame provides front body support and stability enabling the child to have an easy view of activities, surroundings and social interaction. Our solid electric change tables come in a range of lengths from 900mm, 1200mm and 1500mm with folding side rails and castors to fit small bathroom areas. Heights range from 500mm to 960mm. The use of electric change tables lowers the risk of back injuries for educators and allow the child independent transfer where possible. QUESTIONS TO REFLECT UPON When accessing the use of high needs equipment there are a few things to remember. Ask yourself: Will it fit into the service’s space? You need to check floor space and storage when not in use. How will this piece of equipment support the educator in the inclusion process? Has the child’s therapist used the measurement chart from the Noah’s Ark website to ensure the equipment will meet the child’s needs in sizing? The measurement chart can be downloaded on the Noah’s Ark website at www.noahsark.net.au Contact Noah’s Ark to discuss your high ongoing equipment needs: Tina Millar Operations Manager Noah’s Ark 1300 497 437 www. Noahsark.net.au WORKFORCE.ORG.AU 13
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Autumn 2015

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