Prior Lake-Savage Area Schools recently educated students about a variety of ethnic foods including the popular Somali stuffed pastry and sambusas, which are often served during the Muslim holiday, Ramadan, according to district officials.
According to the district, PLSAS Child Nutrition Services staff features “World Wednesday,” a time when students throughout the school district have the option to try a dish that may be new to them, while learning about and celebrating a variety of cultures in their community.
This month, students tried East African cuisine including sambusas from Afro Deli from the Twin Cities metro, as well as Somali basmati rice and plantains.
PLSAS also teamed up with Afro Deli to create a video that was shown to students to help educate them about sambusas and the Eid al-Fitr holiday, according to the press release.
Eid is the religious holiday celebrated by Muslims worldwide because it marks the end of the month-long dawn-to-sunset fasting of Ramadan. This year, Eid was celebrated April 20-21.
Also according to the press release, on April 26, PLSAS served Afro Deli’s beef sambusas to students district wide as an option for them to try. Afro Deli has also shared their special recipes for Somali basmati rice and plantains with PLSAS Child Nutrition Services staff, which they served up fresh on April 26.
“World Wednesday is an idea that came from elementary students who expressed interest in trying more ethnic foods,” Emily Malone, Child Nutrition Services Director said. “We started by partnering with the Nguyen family who had a special recipe for Chinese fried rice. It was so popular at one of our elementary schools that our staff decided to serve the dish to all PLSAS students.”
PLSAS plans to continue World Wednesday as a way for students to celebrate and understand cultural traditions in the community.
