What Kids Eat

Kids Photograph the Food They Eat Over One Day

If you get the chance, check out What Kids Eat, a new exhibit currently being shown at several locations around San Diego.  One hundred kids from 10 schools in San Diego County were given disposable cameras and asked to document what they ate over the course of one day. 

It’s fascinating to see not only what the kids ate, but also what they chose to document.  They are many shots of school lunch
trays, fast food, and junk food (cheetos, soda, candy), but just as many shots of fruit and salads, too. 

The kids (age 8) also answered questionnaires about what they had eaten: “Did you enjoy eating your food today?”  “How did the food make you feel?”

 

My favorite question was “If you could have eaten anything else today what would it have been?”
One answer: “it would be spegtey (spaghetti).”  Another: “it would of been brokly (broccoli).”

Not all of the photos are particularly of great quality (many of the images are blurry, partly the limitations of the small lenses on the disposable cameras and sometimes the result of the camera being close to the object being photographed), but there are some images of striking beauty:

Of equal or, perhaps, even more interest than what the kids ate is what is behind the food: glimpses of people and backgrounds in the photos.  There are shots of siblings, parents, classmates, kitchens, dining rooms, the inside of refrigerators: 

 

I’m fascinated by these photos for the same reason I love Peter Menzel’s books Material World and Hungry Planet. 

They offer a brief glimpse into how others live and eat—but this time the subjects control the camera and choose how they are portrayed, an idea employed so effectively by Zana Briski’s Kids With Cameras in their Oscar-winning documentary film Born into Brothels. 

This exhibit, sponsored by the Sugar Musuem, runs through October 31st at the following venues around the county:

Chula Vista Civic Center Library
City Heights/Weingart Branch Library
City Heights Wellness Center
College-Rolando Library
Grants Market, South Park
Mission Hills Branch Library
North Park Branch Library
Pacific Beach/Taylor Library

If you can, visit the City Heights locations—the Wellness Center and Library are on the same block of Wightman Street (at Fairmont, one block south of University).  If you go on a Saturday morning you can also check out the nearby City Heights Farmers’ Market—a culturally diverse, affordable market that is the first in the city to accept EBT (food stamps) and WIC vouchers. 

Oh, and while you’re there, don’t forget the broccoli.