Ethnic cuisine helps bridge cultural divide

A two-year grant is funding this effort to get different cultures to understand each other -- and food and food stories are a great place to start. - - Donna Poisl

Program has students write about, analyze and taste traditional dishes

By Maureen Magee, UNION-TRIBUNE STAFF WRITER

EL CERRITO — As a child, Fadumo Aweys sold traditional sambusas at her family’s restaurant in Somalia. As an adult in San Diego, she makes the meat-and-mint-filled dumplings to feed her children and remind them of their African culture.

Aweys and her daughter, Muna Abdirahman, were among several students last week who shared their favorite ethnic dishes — and the stories behind them — with students at Crawford High School as part of a community diversity project.

Sambusas, chile verde, coconut bread and Vietnamese sandwiches were the inspiration for essays, the subjects of science experiments, the source of mathematical analysis and muses for student artists.
Click on the headline to read the rest of this story! This is only a small part of it.