Lesson Plan(s)

Cultures, Food, and Communities Around the World

Students will explore different cultures around the world, compare worldwide communities with local communities, and explain the interrelationship between the environment and community development. 

Filling the Global Grocery Bag

Students learn what factors affect a country's ability to produce their own food and how food expenses differ throughout the world.

Food Systems Feed the World

Students will explore the steps and processes that create a food system and gain an understanding of hunger as it relates to the physical well-being, culture, and geographic location of all people. Students will learn what a food system encompasses, create a "food system chain," and discuss why hunger still exists despite modern advances that have made the US food system highly efficient. 

Global Food Security

Students will explore the causes of hunger, both domestically and globally; evaluate potential solutions for solving world hunger; and forecast the impact of a growing world population on current food supplies.

Hunger and Malnutrition (Grades 3-5)

Students will learn about the importance of eating a variety of foods in order to get all the nutrients needed to be healthy, explore diets around the world using Peter Menzel's Hungry Planet Family Food Portraits, and discuss the scope of the problems of hunger and malnutrition using the World Food Programme Hunger Map.

Hunger and Malnutrition (Grades 6-8)

Students will learn about the importance of eating a variety of foods in order to get all the nutrients needed to be healthy, explore diets around the world using Peter Menzel's Hungry Planet Family Food Portraits, and discuss the scope of the problems of hunger and malnutrition using the World Food Programme Hunger Map.

Plant Nutrient Deficiencies (Grades 6-8)

Students discuss the definition of “fertilizer” and relate it to plant nutrition and the need to restore nutrient balance in agricultural soils. They discuss how people and crops can suffer from nutrient deficiencies. Students assume the roles of plant doctors and diagnose nutrient deficiencies in corn plants.

Plant Nutrient Deficiencies (Grades 9-12)

Students will recognize that plants, like people, require essential nutrients to be present in the right amounts in order to be healthy, use reference materials to diagnose plant nutrient deficiencies, define fertilizer as a type of “food” for plants, and appreciate that fertilizers are used to replenish nutrients in agricultural soils.

Where Does It Come From?

Students will explore the connection between geography, climate, and the type of agriculture in an area by reading background information and census data about the agricultural commodities beef, potatoes, apples, wheat, corn, and milk.

Companion Resource(s)

Book

Agronomy - Grow with It!

Agronomy Grow with It! explores the science of agriculture. Agronomy is the science we use to grow the crops that feed us, feed our livestock, and even fuel our cars. It's a science that tackles the big challenge of our future: How can we grow enough food to end world hunger and, at the same time, adapt to a changing climate and protect our environment? This book introduces you to 20 real agronomists who face that challenge every day.

Beatrice's Goat

Page McBrier and Lori Lohstoeter beautifully recount the true story of Beatrice, a young girl from Uganda, Africa who longs to go to school more than anything else. Unfortunately, only children who can afford uniforms and books can go to school, and with five other brothers and sisters, Beatrice knows that her family is much too poor. But then Beatrice receives a wonderful gift: a goat that will give milk that she can sell. Thanks to Heifer Project International - a charitable organization that donates livestock to poor communities around the world - Beatrice and other families like hers will have a chance to change their lives. Book based on a true story.

If the World Were a Village

Imagine if the entire world's population were compiled into a village of 100 people. What would the demographics of that village be? This book helps students understand the similarities and differences of a global society. Comprehend the languages they speak, where they live, how much money they earn daily, and if they can read and write.

Nory Ryan's Song

Life is hard for poor Irish potato farmers, but 12-year-old Nory Ryan and her family have always scraped by... until one morning, Nory wakes to the foul, rotting smell of diseased potatoes dying in the fields. And just like that, all their hopes for the harvest--for this year and next--are dashed. Hunger sets in quickly. The beaches are stripped of edible seaweed, the shore is emptied of fish, desperate souls even chew on grass for the nourishment. As her community falls apart, Nory scrambles to find food for her family. Meanwhile, the specter of America lurks, where, the word is, no one is ever hungry, and horses carry milk in huge cans down cobblestone streets. 

The Hungry Planet

In 2000, the author began research for this book on the world's eating habits. Each family was asked to purchase a typical week's groceries, which were artfully arrayed—whether sacks of grain and potatoes and overripe bananas, or rows of packaged cereals, sodas and take-out pizzas—for a full-page family portrait. A detailed listing of the goods, broken down by food groups and expenditures are shown, then a more general discussion of how the food is raised and used, illustrated with a variety of photos and a family recipe. While the photos are extraordinary—fine enough for a stand-alone volume—it's the questions these photos ask that make this volume so gripping. This is a beautiful, quietly provocative volume.

Poster, Map, Infographic

Interactive FAO Hunger Map

This map illustrates the percent of people who are undernourished in countries around the world. Select different periods of time and different regions to see how hunger rates have changed over the last 25 years. 

Interactive Map: Staple Food Crops of the World

This media spotlight from National Geographic highlights food crop layers from MapMaker Interactive, displaying how many tons of cassava, potatoes, soybeans, yams, and other food crops were produced per country as an average from 2010 to 2012. 

Nine (+) Infographics That Will Help You Teach Hunger

Between the statistics and vocabulary often used to describe it, teachers know the scale of global hunger can be a challenge to help students understand. The following “infographics”—visual aids explaining complicated topics—explain world hunger and break the topic down.

World Hunger Map

With our grocery store shelves overflowing with a seemingly unlimited abundance of food, many Americans do not realize that around the world, in our own nation, and even in our own communities, people may not have enough food for adequate nutrition. This map clearly shows the percentage of undernourished individuals around the globe and is a great tool to teach students about the importance of food and the reality that even with as much food as there is in the world, some people still go hungry.

Multimedia

Career Profile Video: Educator & Agronomist

Learn from Catherine Swoboda about being an educator and agronomist. Discover how she became interested in the field and how she has used her education to help alleviate hunger by increasing education on the production of food.

How to Feed the World in 2050: Actions in a Changing Climate video

Learn how climate change has affected agriculture and how steps can be taken to preserve our ability to sustainably produce food for our planet.

TEDMED Talk: What Does the World Eat?

Peter Menzel is a freelance photojournalist known for his coverage of international feature stories on science and the environment, and his wife Faith D’Aluisio is a former award-winning television news producer. In this 14-minute talk, Menzel discusses the projects they have undertaken together, including publishing The Hungry Planet. He further explores the changes they have observed in what and how people eat around the world, touching on issues such as obesity and food security.  

World Without Farmers--One Hungry Planet

Imagine a world without farmers...still think food comes from the grocery store? This 4-minute video clip helps illustrate the growing need for farmers to produce more food for a growing population with the same or fewer resources.

Booklets & Readers

FAO Statistical Pocketbook: World Food and Agriculture

This is a pocketbook summarization of data presented in the UN Food and Agriculture Organization Statistical Yearbook publications. It includes thematic spreads with data visualizations (graphs, charts, and maps) and basic text. The second part has country-level tables for a selected number of indicators. Topics covered include global demographics, undernourishment, food availability, crop production, agricultural trade, water, energy, and climate change.  

Teacher Reference

Hungry Planet Resources from Social Studies School Service

The Social Studies School Service offers posters, a curriculum guide, and a DVD to help teachers utilize the work of Peter Menzel and Faith D'Alusio, authors of What the World Eats and A Hungry Planet. Twelve posters show families from different countries in their homes with a week's worth of food displayed around them. The curriculum guide includes critical thinking questions, writing prompts, activities, reading strategies, and a PowerPoint presentation (with eight slides corresponding to each poster) that leads students through the process of visual analysis.

Website

EarthPulse

This National Geographic site explores global connections in areas like trends in human condition and our relationship with nature using vivid and informative imagery, maps, diagrams, and interactives that illuminate where we are today, how we got here, and how our actions may affect the future of life on Earth. This is a great resource for information to accompany lessons on hunger, food systems, and the environmental impact of agriculture.

Hungry Planet Family Food Portraits

The Peter Menzel Photography website provides an archive of the photos included in the Hungry Planet book, which depict everything an average family consumes in a week along with the food cost. These portraits provide a glimpse into kitchens from Norway to China to Mexico, raising questions about how culture and environment influence the cost and calories of diets around the world.