Cultural Energizer (5 minutes)

1. Pose the following question to students: What are your top five favorite foods to eat? 
   1. Students jot down responses on a paper before sharing. Allow students to pair-share with peers nearby of their favorite foods.
   2. Follow up with the following question: Do you know which country or culture your food is from?
   3. Allow students to pair-share with peers nearby.

Anticipation Guide Warm-Up Activity (10 minutes) 

1. On the screen, display the following popular food items. Additionally, display the list of countries that these food items belong to. Do NOT match up the food to the country just yet, mix up the images and names.
   1. Suggested format: food images on left column, list of countries on right column (sporadically placed)
   2. Food images to include (but not limited to): cheese, sushi, pizza, taco, empanadas, phở, pad thai
   3. List of country (for origins of food from list above): cheese (France), sushi (Japan), pizza (Italy), taco (Mexico), empanadas (Spain/Argentina), phở (Vietnam), pad thai (Thailand) 
   4. This activity can be a timed challenge. Have students work with a partner to see if they can match the food item to the appropriate country of origin. 
   5. Review correct matches with students. 
   6. Suggested teacher prompt to transition: A lot of the food we have in the United States comes from a mix of people. As people come to the US from different countries, they bring with them their culture, cuisines, and communities. Many immigrants build a new life for themselves in America and that may include introducing foods and establishing restaurants for a living. Inform students that today’s lesson will focus on Hmong cuisine and communities and how they have influenced the United States. 

Interaction with First Source (15 minutes)

1. Use lesson background to provide background context to students. (Teacher to use discretion to modify appropriately for age level). 
2. View video as a class: “What Is Hmong Food? Chef Yia Vang Celebrates Hmong Culture Through Food” (2:48 minutes) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fmJP1zWYCgM
3. Ask students:
   1. What parts of the video stood out to you?
   2. What are some questions or wonderings that come to mind?
   3. What did you learn about Hmong food?

Online Webquest (10–15 minutes) 

1. Ask students to think of Hmong dishes or stores (restaurants) in their local community, or that they have heard of. 
   1. Allow time for students to conduct an online search to find restaurant names, dishes, and such. 

2. Possible findings (Fresno or Sacramento, CA):

   Note: You may also use Union Hmong kitchen in Minnesota as an example https://www.unionkitchenmn.com/. 

   1. Purple sticky rice mov nplaum ntsaav (a combination of sweet black rice and sweet white rice that have been soaked together until the rice has a beautiful violet hue and steamed)
   2. Nam van or naab vaam (tri-color (three color) or sweetened dessert drink that consists of coconut, tapioca pearls, cendol, and many other toppings that are mixed in)
   3. Hmong sausage (coarsely-ground, country style sausage, usually pork, rich with Southeast Asian flavors like ginger, cilantro, chiles and garlic)
   4. Larb or Laab (ground meat with dried chile, scallions, shallots, fish sauce, lime, fresh herbs and nutty toasted rice)
   5. Papaya salad qaub (sweet, sour, spicy and salty, with a crunch from the papaya and amazing umami flavors from the fermented fish sauce and shrimp paste)
   6. Kapoon or khaub poob (a type of red curry coconut chicken noodle soup served over rice vermicelli noodles and topped with fresh herbs and shredded cabbage)
   7. Kopiak or qhaub piaj (a simple chicken noodle soup with udon-like soft and chewy tapioca noodles)

Community Collaboration (15–20 minutes)

1. Ask students to keep in mind the following prompts. (Prompts can be modified appropriately for grade levels.)
   1. What is the importance of food for Hmong refugees as they settled in America? What Hmong foods were introduced to America by the refugees? What culinary influences did Hmong refugees and immigrants have on the United States? How does food tell stories and build community?
   2. Prompts can be answered with group or partner work. 
   3. Teachers can review answers to the prompts above with students.
2.   Teachers can also provide a flow chart to students to help with understanding cuisine origins. Alternatively, the class or student pairs can co-construct this flow map, and/or fill in missing parts of the flow chart. 
   1. Possible flow chart content: Vietnam (Secret) War ends → Hmong refugees find and create new homes for themselves in America → Hmong communities, such as Hmong Villages, are created all across the US → Hmong immigrants open up businesses to help make a new living for themselves, many of which are stores/restaurants → Hmong food begins to be introduced to Americans.
   2. Students can be provided this interactive map to trace and identify pertinent data regarding Hmong immigration to the United States: See “U.S. Immigrant Population by State and County” (https://www.migrationpolicy.org/programs/data-hub/charts/us-immigrant-population-state-and-county?width=850&height=850&iframe=true).

Cultural Production (20 minutes)

• Task: Consider your four to five favorite foods and their country of origin. You will create a lunch box identity collage highlighting these dishes and their cultural origins. This can be done digitally or by hand. The collage can be a mix of images of the foods, flags of origin countries, adjectives to describe the dishes, labels of the foods, popular restaurants serving that dish, and more. 
  1. Suggest to students to choose food from different countries, and even from their own culture. 
  2. Teachers can prepare a lunch box template for students, or students can outline a lunch box themselves.
  3. As students create their lunch box identity collage, have them prepare to explain their creation. This explanation can be written or rehearsed for oral presentations. Each food item should be traced back to a country of origin. 

Conclusive Dialogue (10 minutes)

•  Students engage in a Lunchbox Moment to share their creations and explain each food origin.