BITE-SIZED: Food Exhibits

If you had a mouth full of delicious chocolate, wouldn’t you be willing to listen to a few words about the realities of producing it? Rachel Waugh is fascinated by everything about food and thinks you might be, too. Her love of cooking, history, and social justice, inspired her to start the Museum of Food and Culture in Denver, where we’re invited to think with critical consciousness about the food we eat.

We love the Museum’s plans for interactive educational experiences about the ways history and culture intertwine with food in what they call “Bite-Sized” programming.

You’ll get a little taste of  different foods – something new every few months. Temporary exhibits will appear throughout the Denver area in 2022, each location featuring small exhibits on a single food-related theme such as bread, ice cream, brewery products, cookbooks, and that ever-popular chocolate.
It will be like a moveable feast throughout the area, with participants starting at one location, then being directed to other locations where local businesses await and fresh fun activities are happening.

Let’s think about the chocolate theme some more (or s’more). Rachel wants you to be able to grind up cocoa nibs on a metate so you can see how people first figured out how to use the beans. Our AWB grant will help pay for nibs and other materials to create exhibit installations with interactive components. The chocolate story isn’t all sugar, although the story of sugar is one key ingredient along with fair trade, race in agriculture, organic products, intersectional representation. After the live events, some of the content will live on the Museum’s website, and interactive games are planned. “We believe that play and interactive experiences are the best way to learn,” says Rachel. We do too! Especially if there’s chocolate.