Capstone Project Proposal

Name of student: Natalie Apacible Date: 5/14/2024

Teacher: Mr. Green Block: C

The Capstone Focus I have chosen is: Product Creation.

Title of Capstone: Cultural and Family Connections Through Food

Inquiry question: How does food connect people?

Rationale/context: It's important to me because I grew up being the “odd one out” when it
came to school lunches. Everyone always had similar lunches like sandwiches and lunchables
while I had traditional dishes like adobo where kids would say things like “eww what’s that smell”
or “why does it look like that?” which in turn made me feel ashamed about my culture. I am also
using this as an opportunity to bond with my mother and bring a part of “home” with me as I
graduate and enter adulthood.

Background: I grew up helping my mom in the kitchen so I know how to make the recipes but
not much about the history behind the dishes which will turn the process of creating the
cookbook into a learning experience for me. As well as growing up with kids who also went
through similar cultural struggles which helps me view different perspectives of the same
situation.

Career connections: As of late my intended career is to hopefully land within the

criminology area which doesn’t have much to do with my inquiry. Lately however, I've been
wanting to be more absorbed in my culture because I grew up ashamed of my traditions and
wanted to be a part of the western community so badly. Now that I’ve matured and learned to
embrace my culture, I’ve been asking my family to teach me more about our history, language
and overall culture. That is why I wanted to make a Filipino cookbook to help me learn more
about our cultural food and its history.

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Interdisciplinary and core competencies connections :Personal and Cultural identity is
the core competency that I believe will be the most connected with my project due to the grasp I
have on the importance of cultural appreciation especially when it comes to children, so that
they grow up proud and appreciative of their cultures. Another reason I believe personal and
cultural identity is the most connected competency is because of how much I yearn to be
reconnected and comfortable in my culture. One competency that would also be a good match
is communication because my goal with my cookbook is to communicate with others on this
topic and to properly express the importance of diversity and to show that it is something to be
open about and not ashamed.

Capstone Presentation medium: I’m planning on using a PowerPoint presentation to present

my final project. In the slide show I will include pictures of the recipes and the steps we took in
creating and planning out the cookbook.

Description of my Capstone project: I will be creating a cookbook of cultural Filipino dishes

as a way to re-discover and learn more about my own culture. I grew up wanting to be any other
culture besides my own but now that I've grown and matured I realized how beautiful and
interesting my culture is, especially when it comes to our food. I also want to take this capstone
project as an opportunity to not only reconnect with my culture through food but to hopefully use
this as a way to strengthen my relationship with my mother. One thing about my mother is not
only the fact that she's the best cook i've ever met but her love language also lies within
cooking. My mom has loved cooking since she was a little girl and I know her favorite bonding
moments were when I was a kid and we would cook together. My mom will be my #1 mentor
during this project and since we will be collaborating with each other for the entire process of
creating our cookbook I'm hoping it brings her back to when we would wear matching aprons
and cook together before dad got home to surprise him with the home cooked meal that “I”
made. My mom is very good friends with a woman named Mina who works for a photography
company who also prints out cook books, so we will also be collaborating with them to help us in
the process of creating our cookbook. The reason we are doing this is because I am not only
making this cookbook solely for this project but also because I want to be able to keep it with me
through my journey into adulthood and want it to survive through my messy personality. I want
this cookbook to be something I can pass onto my children and so on. Meaning i want the
quality of the book to be as high as possible so that it can last longer and not be easily
damaged.

Resources/ Technology/Skills: I will need editing programs to design the cover page or if I
decide to hand make the cover I'll need art supplies like pencils, pencil crayons and/ or paint. I
will also be using alot of paper so ill be using either regular paper, coloured paper or high quality
paper to keep the book as resistant and strong as possible.
Mentors/Community Connections:Some possible mentors will all be within my family like
aunts, uncles , cousins etc. But for sure my main mentor will be my mother as I grew up with her
cooking and tried most of the Filipino dishes that I've tried through her. I will also try to reach
out to family friends and family members of friends to get more perspectives and recipes from
many families on Filipino dishes and to see the many beautiful and amazing ways our dishes
are made.

Project limitations:I am currently unsure on how I will share the cookbook with others. Maybe
plan on selling them or giving them away to others in order to share the recipes and history
without community. I just don’t know if many will be interested in purchasing my cookbook. So I
might need to make a digital cookbook version to make it easier to share?

References:

:Pietrykowski, B. (2004). You Are What You Eat: The Social Economy of the Slow Food
Movement. Review of Social Economy, 62(3), 307–321. http://www.jstor.org/stable/29770263

Ravasio, M. (2018). Food Landscapes: An Object-Centered Model of Food Appreciation. The

Monist, 101(3), 309–323. https://www.jstor.org/stable/26478110

Song, C., Goto, K., Hu, M., & Wolff, C. (2015). The impact of social and cultural factors on the
consumption of western fast food among Chinese children. Community Development Journal,
50(4), 709–723. https://www.jstor.org/stable/26165024

ESPRIVALO, P. S., & FORNEY, S. (2001). Cultivating Cultural Appreciation: ADDRESSING

DIVERSITY THROUGH ETHNOBOTANY. The Science Teacher, 68(3), 29–31.
http://www.jstor.org/stable/24154512

freeman, susan tax. (2006). Culturing Food. Gastronomica, 6(4), 99–107.

https://doi.org/10.1525/gfc.2006.6.4.99