Food Deserts (Lesson adapted from: http://exploringfoodjustice.weebly.

com/lesson-3--
stranded-food-deserts.html )
Title: Desiertos de comida (food deserts)

Subject Area/Topic: Spanish 3- Health

Essential Questions of Lesson:

1. How does location influence access to nutritious food?
2. What is a food desert?
3. What factors might influence the decisions of where a grocery store is placed and how
do those choices impact a community?
4. How do these decisions impact your community and/or the communities around you?

Curriculum Standards:

NH.IR.2 I can sometimes understand short, simple descriptions with the help of
pictures or graphs.
NH.IL.2 I can understand simple information when presented with pictures and graphs.

Lesson Context: The unit we are studying is health, specifically healthy eating habits. Students
have learned vocabulary regarding Choose My Plate and the food groups. Students have also
written healthy eating goals such as, I will eat more fruits or I will include more grains in
my diet

Content Objectives for the Lesson: SWBAT analyze the implications of food deserts on
healthy eating habits.

Learning Objectives for Students: SWBAT think about and analyze the implications of food
deserts on eating habits.

Language Objectives for Students: SWBAT read and analyze information and questions about
food deserts.

Starter: To begin the lesson, we will participate in an activity in which there are four signs
posted around the room- Si totalmente (Strongly agree) Si (Agree) No (Disagree) and
No en absoluto (Strongly Disagree). I will project a statement, in Spanish, and students are
to decide how they feel based on the statement. Then, they will stand in the place based on
how they feel. They will talk to the people standing near them, sharing why they chose to
stand there. We will engage in this activity for the following three statements:

Es fcil comer comida saludable/nutritiva. Its easy to eat healthy food

Todos pueden obtener comida saludable/nutritiva. Everyone can get healthy food"
Tiendas de comida (supermercados) pueden construir sus tiendas donde quieran.
Grocery stores should get to build their stores wherever they want"
After, we will come back together as a large group and I will ask students what the experience
was like for them. After reflecting, I will then transition by stating that today, we are going to
be learning about another factor that influences peoples food choices.

Class Procedures: I will present an interactive PowerPoint presentation where students will
answer questions and discuss with their groups about food deserts and their implications for
eating healthy.
1. First question: Desierto de comida, Qu es? Food desert, what is it? I will ask for
volunteers and see if anyone can tell us what it is. From there, I will give students a
definition of food desert, in Spanish, and we will discuss what it means. With the given
definition, I will show students a graphic that can help us understand food desert.
(Figure below)
2. In groups of 2-4, students will discuss and write their answers to the following
questions:
a. Que causa un desierto de comida? (What causes a food desert?)
b. En qu lugares hay desiertos de comida? Cules son algunas caractersticas?
(In what places are there food deserts? What are some characteristics?)
c. Cmo puede afectar la salud de los que viven en un desierto de comida?
Cmo puede afectar sus hbitos alimenticios? (How can it affect the health of
those that live in a food desert? How can it affect their eating habits?)
d. Students will be able to discuss and write in English as the point of the lesson is
comprehension.
3. We will then come back as a group, where a couple of the small groups will share what
they discussed as a group.
4. The next slide will present information on the characteristics of a food desert, i.e. low
income neighborhoods.
5. I will show students an interactive map, https://www.ers.usda.gov/data-products/food-
access-research-atlas/ provided by the USDA, in which we can see what
neighborhoods are considered food deserts. I will show students the Salt Lake Valley
and its neighborhoods considered food deserts. In their small groups, students will
answer the following questions regarding the map:
a. Ves algn patrn (pattern) en el mapa? (Do you see a pattern in the map?)
b. Por qu piensas que hay desiertos de comida en estos lugares? (Why do you
think these places are food deserts?)
c. Again, students will be able to discuss and write in English as the point of the
lesson is comprehension.
6. We will then come back as a big group and we will briefly discuss what students
answered to the questions about the map
7. Finally, I will show students 2 articles (in English) regarding Salt Lakes response to
the issue of food deserts:
a. http://www.deseretnews.com/article/865656996/Mobile-farmers-market-to-
serve-food-desert-communities-in-west-SL.html
b. http://www.sltrib.com/opinion/4068267-155/editorial-slcs-food-deserts-need-a
c. We will discuss the implications of the information provided by the articles on
our discussion of food deserts. Is their response the right one?
Lesson Closure: To end the lesson, I will show students the three statements from the starter.
For each statement, I will ask students to raise their hand if their opinion changed after
learning about food deserts.

Assessment: During small group discussion, I will walk around to each group to get a grasp on
how students are doing in comprehension and understanding of the topic.