Ingredients of Identity - GPL Community Read

In partnership with the Galesburg Public Library's Community Read, we are hosting 3 free activities that correspond with this year's book: Bite by Bite: Nourishments and Jamborees by Aimee Nezhukumatathil.

For the 2nd activity, participants will create a dish that incorporates their Ingredients of Identity!

Food is never just food. It carries memory, migration, celebration, survival, adaptation, and love. In Bite by Bite, Aimee Nezhukumatathil shows us how a single ingredient can hold an entire story — about family, culture, belonging, and becoming.

In this activity, we’ll explore how our identities are shaped not just by what we eat, but by the contexts surrounding those meals: the people, the sounds, the traditions, the table settings, the language spoken in the kitchen. Meals often reflect where we come from, the communities that raised us, and the places we’ve traveled — sometimes blending multiple histories into one evolving narrative. Through reflection and visual storytelling, you’ll create a symbolic “identity dish” made up of the ingredients that have shaped who you are.

This activity invites you to consider how culture, family traditions, personal experiences, and lived environments combine to form your unique flavor — a recipe that continues to change and grow over time.