In King Cove, ‘Unfamiliar Foods’ bring a fresh approach to health education

Presented by Alaska Native Tribal Health Consortium

It’s not every day that starfuits, rambutans, persimmons hitch a ride on the barge to King Cove.

But lately, a lot of unexpected ingredients have made their way up to the predominantly Alaska Native community at the eastern end of the Aleutian Chain with a population of 750. That’s thanks to sixth-grade teacher Joy Smith, who partnered with the owners of a local store to pilot an “Unfamiliar Foods” program at the K-12 King Cove School.

Smith has made it her mission to bring a wide variety of foods and recipes to her students. To do so, Smith works with the local grocery store to bring atypical ingredients to King Cove.

Smith is a passionate hobby baker. She hopes to expand students’ food knowledge while they are young so they can harness those culinary skills and curiosity for the rest of their lives.

“The time to try new foods is as a kid,” Smith said. “And if you get more into the practice of trying new foods and have more exposure to it, you’re going to try them as an adult.”

Since it began, the program has expanded to serving elders at the Aleutian Pribilof Islands Association, which has been a fantastic success.

But experimenting with food is more than a fun and tasty project. By including more non-traditional foods and fruits and vegetables, kids are provided with important nutrients.

Kids make a rush for unfamiliar foods during weekly classroom program

Grocery shopping in a remote community like King Cove can be tricky. Fresh produce travels far to arrive on local shelves, and consequently can be extremely expensive.

Smith grew up in the remote community of Seldovia. She said it’s easy to get into ruts with food, even when the local grocery store brings in as much fresh food as possible.

“When you have a barge that comes every two weeks in the winter, things run short,” Smith said. “So, you get fresh produce when you can and you cook it when you can, and you use frozen ingredients when you can’t.”

Gaps to accessing fresh, new ingredients were front of mind when Smith started Unfamiliar Foods last August. The idea hatched at an Aleutian Pribilof Islands Association potluck, where attendees were asked to take a survey about food security — including a question about what kept them from trying new foods.

That got Smith thinking: “I thought that we could maybe do something where the kids could find a recipe and cook it in class,” she said. “And then we could give the recipe to the store for them to put out.”

Smith worked with local grocer Alaska Commercial Company to source ingredients and turn them into recipes with her class of sixth graders, seven kids total.

Together, they learned how to make recipes and measure ingredients for dishes like mango and yogurt salads, homemade tomato sauces, and whole wheat stromboli. Each Wednesday, Costco-style samples were placed out at lunchtime for students to try.

The new program was a hit. Kids from other grades streamed into Smith’s room between class periods to try new dishes.

“If kids try a food and they realize that it’s not this weird-looking thing, and that you can do all these different things with it, then they’re going to go home and tell their parents,” Smith said.

“Or they’re going to be more likely when they go out in the big wide world to try it and say, ‘Oh hey, I remember doing this when I was in sixth grade. I actually really liked how that tasted,’” said Smith.

Managers Mark and Kay Thompson at King Cove’s Alaska Commercial Company said the program shows kids that they can eat satisfying, healthy foods no matter what ingredients are available.

“It also teaches a valuable life skill they can carry over into their everyday lives as they become young adults,” Mark said.

The curiosity around new foods doesn’t stop with Smith’s students. Kids often take home their new-found culinary skills, techniques such as removing seeds from a pomegranate.

The Unfamiliar Foods program has reached King Cove elders, too. Smith connected with the Aleutian Pribilof Islands Association to bring food samples to elders in the community. That expanded to elder lunches featuring dishes like a starfruit tart and jambalaya.

“The elders were extremely appreciative of the lunches, and they enjoyed all the fresh fruit and veggies they were receiving,” said Ashley Withrow, community health services director at Aleutian Pribilof Islands Association. “They were excited to try some of the foods that they had never tried before, like the turkey lasagna. They absolutely loved it.”

The association is working on increasing the variety of healthy foods to local stores in its service area, in addition to increasing food sovereignty by promoting traditional foods, said Withrow.

The power of community

Schools in rural Alaska often have a hard time retaining teachers for more than a few years. But Smith is celebrating her 10th year at King Cove School, where she started her career fresh out of college.

“It’s hard to imagine a more dedicated individual in place to support the students at King Cove School,” King Cove Principal Paul Barker said.

Smith thrives on collaboration. Support from the community for programs like Unfamiliar Foods is what keeps her going.

Buy-in from the local Alaska Commercial Company has been huge, too. Mark Thompson, with the store, has known Smith since 2016. His son was one of her students. When Smith first started the program, the grocery store offered an “Unfamiliar Food of the Month.”

“They actually started sending samples,” Smith said. “They started sending rambutans. The students loved them — they were prickly and amazing.”

Now, Smith gets a budget of $100 a month to pick out ingredients from the store. She recommends other teachers reach out to their local stores to see how they can work together on similar projects.

Withrow said it’s no coincidence that such a grassroots program has been received so positively from all sides of the community.

“Locally driven projects typically have greater success and impact,” she said. “Partnering with the local grassroots efforts like Joy’s is one of the best ways to fulfill the Aleutian Pribilof Islands Association mission.”

Sounds like a recipe for success.

This is the first story in a two-part series about chronic disease prevention.

This story was sponsored by the Alaska Native Tribal Health Consortium, a statewide nonprofit Tribal health organization designed to meet the unique health needs of more than 175,000 Alaska Native and American Indian people living in Alaska.

This story was produced by the sponsored content department of the Anchorage Daily News in collaboration with ANTHC. The ADN newsroom was not involved in its production.