The environment at the Frog Hollow Neighbourhood House (FHNH) has been very busy recently, as the staff members prepare for a large event: the June 9th Parent Conference. The Parent Conference is held annually by the Community Action Program for Children, a neighbourhood-collaborated organization that promotes health and well-being for immigrant families who have children aged six and under (FHNH). The theme of the conference this year is “Healthy Families & Happy Future,” and its main topics cover food safety, healthy eating, and nutritional guidance; the conference will also host food demonstrations.
Food education has been the focus of FHNH for a long time, so the centre expects many participants for the conference. According to the FHNH Family Program coordinator, Chinese immigrant families, the dominant “visible minority” in the neighbourhood, enjoy and appreciate the communal kitchen and cooking classes.
Food education is an important tool for dietary acculturation, the process of immigrant groups adopting the dietary behaviour and cultural traits of the host country (Satia et al. 2001:548). With respect to FHNH, it is noteworthy that Chinese health beliefs and dietary habits differ considerably from those of Canadians. For example, Chinese eating habits traditionally emphasize vegetables and rice, while Western people consume more milk products, meat and snacks (ibid.).
As a Chinese woman who immigrated to Canada four years ago, I feel I can empathize with what some of the Chinese immigrants experience. My dietary habits changed a bit after I moved to Canada, but I have also maintained many Chinese habits. I prepare Western-style breakfasts for my family, such as milk and bread. However, most of our lunches and dinners are Chinese-styled. For example, we eat rice with stir-fried vegetables and soup. Meanwhile, I like to cook some tonics soup to maintain good health of my family, and advise my daughter not to drink cold milk and eat cold food as they are too “yin” according to traditional Chinese beliefs. From my experience, food acculturation is a long and complex process, as it involves people adjusting to what is convenient, but also feeling comfortable in their new home. Thus, FHNH regards food education as a priority to promote social health and social integration.
Two child-care programs at FHNH provide ideal starting places for food acculturation. The Family Drop-in Program, which provides hot lunches for children, has been running for 15 years. Most of the participants are Chinese immigrants, and the prevailing language is Cantonese. All of the staff, including those working in an adjacent kitchen, is Chinese immigrants. Nevertheless, the lunches offered normally are in Western style. Last Thursday’s hot lunch had spaghetti, potatoes, mushrooms and ground pork, and each child also had a couple slices of apple and pear, with a cup of milk. Strong Start, a program FHNH operates in collaboration with the Vancouver School Board, prepares crackers, cheese, and fruit as snacks for the children. The staff emphasize that all foods they provide are healthy. Both the hot lunch and the snacks suggest characteristics of the ideal Canadian diet: high fruit and dairy intake, and spaghetti, potatoes or crackers for protein and carbohydrate sources.
One parent in the Drop-in program commented to me that FHNH offered the food in Western-style because it was more convenient to cook, but she might ignore the efforts made by FHNH in regard to food education. Smith contends, all the routine, daily activities are “accomplishments of ongoing courses of action in which many are implicated” and “their concerting or coordering is an ongoing process” (1988:141). Food education campaign targeted to immigrant families and free lunch and snacks provided in the family programs may suggest a process of promoting food acculturation and Canadian dietary in FHNH.
Reference Cited:
Frog Hollow Neighbourhood House
N.d. Family Programs. http://www.froghollow.bc.ca/capc-community-action-program-children, accessed March 23, 2012
Satia, J A, Ruth E. Patterson, Alan R. Kristal, T.Gregory Hislop, YuTaka Yasui, and Vicky M.Taylor.
2001 Development of scales to measure dietary acculturation among Chinese-Americans and Chinese-Canadians. Journal of the American Dietetic Association. 101(5):548-553.
Smith, Dorothy E.
1988 The Everyday World as Problematic: A Feminist Sociology. Toronto: University of Toronto Press.
The image is edited in Photoshop based on the images as follows:
http://hrsbstaff.ednet.ns.ca/mstoilov/Health/canadafoodguide.htm
http://chineseppl.blogspot.ca/2011/08/dim-sum-etiquette-tapping-to-say-thanks.html
I really enjoyed your post Judy! These examples of enculturation exist at every level. Daycare programs, elementary school programs, universities… all provide healthy snacks, which include things like granola bars, carrots, and sandwiches. While I’m sure the decision to have these foods is based on ease (and successful marketing by suppliers) the implications are great. As mentioned in our readings, the health of people who immigrate from Asia begins deteriorating at a far greater rate as soon as they arrive in Canada. Health aside, food is probably one of the most important signifiers of ethnic and cultural identity among any group, especially in the diasporic sense.