Connecting Nature, Generations, and Community Life and Culture
"To provide children with a healthy and happy environment for growth, we focus on people and use the environment as a social space, creating a platform that connects nature, generations, and community life and culture" is the consensus of the Cixin Waldorf community. In 2021, the Cixin Waldorf Education Foundation invited community families to collaboratively create a cooking kitchen using natural building techniques to construct traditional stoves and earthen ovens. With the participation of community partners and the support of the Wistron Cultural Foundation and the Alliance Cultural Foundation, various intergenerational learning workshops were organized, allowing both grandparents and young children to participate. This built a bridge for mutual understanding of parenting perspectives across generations.
From Land to Table, and Back to Life
From 2022 to 2023, the Intergenerational Education and Community Building Project organized 12 "From Land to Table" and "Intergenerational Rice Food and Farming Activities." These events were based on natural seasonal cycles and Waldorf education principles, using the cooking kitchen as the base. A total of 430 participants took part in these activities.
Creating Dialogue, Tradition, and Shared Learning at the Intergenerational Table
In the community, elders are like a treasure map that requires patience to explore, ask, and invite. The foundation actively invites elders to become culinary instructors, transitioning from participants to leaders. One such elder, a grandmother in her sixties from Dongshan, Yilan, shared traditional Yilan cuisine "Siluo Pork" with everyone. In the past, life in rural societies was relatively impoverished, and when hosting guests without the means to purchase meat, people would deep-fry duck egg yolks to create a meat-like aroma and texture. To provide the necessary energy for agricultural labor, they would use thickening techniques to increase the sense of fullness and extend the warmth of the food.
