Before We Eat: From Farm to Table

PreS-Gr 2—How food is produced and made accessible for nourishment and enjoyment is recognized and honored in a new version of "saying grace." Rhyming couplets scan perfectly: "As we sit round this table/let's give thanks as we are able/to all the folks we'll never meet/who helped provide this food we eat." From plowing and planting, gathering eggs and milking cows to trucking produce to the stores where the selling takes place, the people involved in each step of providing food are acknowledged. Colorful woodcut prints show a diverse population working to make food available and a multigenerational group enjoying a meal together. For children who think food comes from the store and aren't aware of all the work that goes into their meals, this title will help them understand the labor required and the numerous laborers involved. Use this title with Chris Butterworth's How Did That Get in My Lunchbox?: The Story of Food (Candlewick, 2013) and Mary Finch's The Little Red Hen (Barefoot, 2013) to help make the lesson personal and inject a bit of humor into a food-themed storytime.—Maryann H. Owen, Children's Literature Specialist, Mt. Pleasant, WI