The Next One

Next time... here's what I would do:

First Steps
Interact with elderlearners in a variety of venues to communicate messages like food is a fascinating subject... don't miss the opportunity to understand your own city inside and out... join a group of curious and thoughtful peers... pursue a healthier and more meaningful way of relating to food... discover the innovative ways men and women are seeking justice and mercy in your community.

Using flyers, a slideshow, spoken presentation, and a blog, invite those I meet to the first event.

Second Steps
The first event will be a patchwork of community activists related to hunger, the obesity epidemic, sustainable agriculture and living, organic farming and eating, community supported agriculture, community gardening, international food security, traditional diets, and healing foods. Local artists, professors, chefs, food entrepreneurs, cultural food experts, and government officials also participate.

Marketed through a variety of communication channels to a target audience of older adults, the event would overview the issues. A one and one-half hour presentation would bring together the speakers for very brief reports on that which they represent. Casual interactions at local coffee houses and gathering places would encourage continued conversation. Perhaps a meal of nourishing foods representing a variety of cultures and eaten at long tables would be a highlight.

The goal of this event would be to expose the elderlearners to all the issues in a way that intrigues them and inspires them to desire to keep learning about food. The event would showcase the opportunity to be a part of the upcoming learning journey.

Step Three
Those who join this journey would choose how much they partipated in the ventures:

• Weekly gatherings at coffee houses or libraries to discuss relevant books and current events.
• Weekly lunch get-to-gethers at restaurants or homes of ethnic cultures with interactions about the specific details of the culture's understanding of food.
• Special meals in homes or community gathering places devoted to enjoying nourishing food thankfully and slowly with the desire to enjoy one another more fully.
• To-be-determined Immersion sessions in which participants interact at an in-depth level with speakers from the first big event. In small teams, participants themselves will choose among the speakers and prepare questions ahead of time. Many of these Immersion sessions will be at an actual farm, store, non-profit, landmark, service-delivery point, community gathering, or factory.
• Exploratory mini-journeys with specific themes (i.e. diverse responses to hunger in Nashville, environmental and cultural barriers to nutrition in the inner city, color and variety and uses of exotic produce).
• Exploratory independent or group projects (inventory available sources of produce in two areas of the city, write an article for the newspaper after interviewing two chefs on their passion for food, gather children in the neighborhood for learning to make a homemade favorite... the possibilities are endless).

The decisions about where to go and what to do would be influenced by small teams of elderlearers who plan specific aspects of the journeys. Even though they could imagine whatever they wanted, they would receive descriptions of specific study groups, mini-journeys, Immersion sessions, etc. from which to choose. Depending on how the learning journey is organizationally structured, participants would then coordinate their plans or submit their choices to the coordinator.

I see two workable schedules for this kind of learning journey:

Scenario One

- The Nashville Food Event

- Two months of book discussions at local coffee shops

- One week of Immersion sessions, exploratory projects, and mini-journeys

- Two months of lunch get-to-gethers, meals in homes, special projects and discussion groups

Naturally forming groups could then continue to meet or find ways to impact their communities on their own. Support would be provided for finding effective means of communication, gathering, and sustaining relationships and purposes that were developed.

Scenario Two

- The Nashville Food Event

- Twelve week course, involving:

. . .Weekly book and current event discussions
. . .Immersion sessions every other week
. . .Projects as often as participants desire
. . .Three to four mini-journies
. . .Three to four lunch or home meal get-to-gethers

- Monthly coffee shop get-to-gethers of participants to plan their own outings, projects, and learning journeys.

****Keep in mind that participants choose their level of involvment. Some may be involved in most of the events; others may only join the book discussions or meet at the Immersion sessions.

Summary
The essential elements of an effective elderlearning journey are:

• Elderlearners themselves create much of the course; it is shaped by their skills, knowledge, curiosity, passions, and goals.
• Elderlearners find themselves very much engaged in their community - not disconnected from others at a time in life in which deeper relationships are essential and in which the need to contribute is often felt.
• Elderlearners and those actually shaping the community for good (or ill) come face to face; elderlearners are continually equipped to evaluate how they can live, work, play with integrity - how their unique gifts can impact their community.
• Elderlearners discover fresh ways of nurturing a community of peers and even intergenerational relationships that inspire one another to do good, think and reflect critically, and live in healthy relationships.