Pasta Making Class
Introducing skills training in healthy food production to the prison population involves selecting a familiar and widely consumed food, and adapting the recipe to enhance its nutritional value while keeping the price affordable.
Last year, we bought four pasta making machines and organized an egg pasta cooking workshop. The class was a big success, as noodles are a familiar food, and fresh pasta was something that appealed to everyone. This year we decided to broaden our egg noodle class to teach “spinach egg noodles”, but with a moringa twist.
Hanitra and I headed to the market and bought: ;
10 kg of flour
10 big bunches of moringa leaves
60 eggs
oil
salt
The reason why we figured that this would be a success is because Malagasy people are already accustomed to green leaf paste. A national food is hena kisoa ravintoto - pork cooked with pounded manioc leaves. As expected and to our joy, the kids, women and children gobbled it all up.
We are hoping that in the near future, we can offer loans to interested women and young men leaving prison, providing them with a means to start generating an income.
Moringa Egg Pasta Cooking Class
P.S. (the next day)
I recently had a conversation with our mason, who mentioned that chickpeas are considered "fady" in our region, meaning they are "against our religion" or "against our tradition”.
“Why?”
“Not sure. People here refuse to eat chickpeas.”
It's interesting. Introducing falafel or a variation of hummus to the northern prisons would likely face cultural resistance despite its potential as a nutritious, low-cost, and tasty food option. Even substituting pounded peanuts for sesame seed paste wouldn't change this. The seemingly "ideal food for dealing with starvation" would fall flat on its face without cultural acceptance. It's akin to us being asked to eat bugs - plentiful, cheap, and nutritious, but culturally undesirable.
This illustrates the importance of researching cultural food stipulations before introducing new nutritional options.
Then I inquired about moringa. We wanted to add it to the meat/bean sauce for our Easter meal, serving 2000 prisoners. However, Francel dampened our enthusiasm.
“No the people here don’t eat moringa. They find it bitter. They only use it medicinally for lowering blood pressure. And moringa roots cause hair to fall out.”
We tried to emphasize the nutritional benefits of moringa and its abundance in our region. We inquired,
“Then why did the kids and women love our pasta with pounded moringa? It wasn’t bitter.”
"Maybe they don't know how to cook it here," he suggested and then changed his tone.
"OK. Let’s go with moringa. If you put a little into the stew, maybe they won't notice."
What became clear to me is that what appears to be a straightforward idea can be complicated by cultural beliefs. It's crucial to consult with local individuals on each and every project we undertake.
