Meet Alyssa Martel!
Meet our educator, Alyssa! A cooking instructor and dietitian that has been working with Explorations for over 3 years. Her love for farm to table food, healthy food habits and wonderful recipes are a few things that we love about Alyssa. Read more about her time with us at Explorations and her new ventures!
How did you get involved in Explorations?
During one of my last internships in my bachelors, I had the chance to hold a nutrition workshop with elementary level kids. The kids were engaged and curious yet were totally disconnected from their food. It was at that point that I realized the tremendous need there was for nutrition education in the youth and my passion for transmitting it. That summer I reached out to Explorations to offer a nutrition class. I connected with James (Explorations’ Director) and we quickly connected over our shared vision for education and the importance of food literacy. I knew Explorations was a place for me.
What is your favourite memory?
My absolute favourite part about holding nutrition and cooking workshops with kids at Explorations is to witness the feeling of empowerment kids get after cooking their own dishes. This year we made stuffed mushrooms as a challenge to help the kids confront foods they perhaps aren’t used to eating and by the end of the class most of them now loved mushrooms!
What makes Explorations unique?
Two things make this community unique for me, on one end the learners and on the other the educators. The learners are dedicated, extremely curious and open minded and the educators are diverse and passionate.
What is an exciting project you have coming up?
I am excited share the news of a new project that I started during the last year called Traktours. I organize farm tours near Montreal to help reconnect us to where our food comes from and discover truly amazing local producers! Educating kids about food is one of my biggest passions and that’s why the tours are free for kids under 13 years old. It is a wonderful way to expose our kids to food in a whole new way and build their appreciation for the food they eat. Each tour is about 4h and includes 3 guided tours by 3 amazing producers, transport is not included. You can check out the tours at www.traktours.com I hope to see many of you out on the farms! Thank you for the support! P.S. The tours are in French as the producers are French speaking 🙂 To read more about Alyssa’s great farm tours here (the interview is in French)
