Mand Community Delves into Documenting its Foods

by Dr. Lois Englberger

After one month of interviews and community workshops, the Mand Community has now developed the Mand Food List, as a joint project with the Island Food Community of Pohnpei. This Food List presents an amazing diversity of crops and crop varieties, including over 10 giant swamp taro, 20 banana varieties, and 13 pandanus varieties, a few of which grow in Mand and others which grow in Pingelap. Many yam and breadfruit varieties were also named, but this list is still being finalized.

In addition to the Pohnpei, Pingelap, English, and scientific names of the foods, information is also taken on the parts of the food item that is used (for example for plants, whether the corm, tuber, fruit, nut, or leaf is used), whether the food item is wild or cultivated, if seasonal, and if marketed.

A core group of the community is providing information on whether a food crop or crop variety is easily available, if it grows well, if widely-known, and if it is liked by children and women (who are the most nutritionally vulnerable). With this information along with information on nutrient content of the food item, the core group is suggesting the priority for promotion for each crop, if high, medium, or low.

Also community members listed over 130 names of edible fish!! The FSM Fish Poster and the Pohnpei-English dictionary were used to provide the framework for the list. Community members examined the fish photographs and then provided the Pingelap and Pohnpei names. The different fish are also being categorized into three groups according to frequency of catching and consuming: most frequent, frequent, and less frequent.

Community members are also providing delicious dishes made of local foods for the workshop refreshments. These have included "keriap" (made of grated banana and coconut) as prepared by Asipa Albert and "seipil en mei" (made of mature and ripe breadfruit and coconut), as prepared by Estel Pedrus.

A workshop is being planned for later in June for the whole Mand community to learn about the list and to provide input into this list.

The project is being led by Kiped Albert and Podis Pedrus of Mand, and Adelino Lorens of Pohnpei Agriculture. The research team includes Dr. Lois Englberger of IFCP, Douglas Nelber of the Historic Preservation Office, Yumiko Paul of the Pohnpei Department of Health, Welsihter Hagilmai of the College of Micronesia-FSM Land Grant Program, Amy Levendusky of Pohnpei Agriculture/ Peace Corps, Mari Yanagisaki of the Japanese Overseas Cooperation Volunteers, and Sarah Shaeffer of Emory University.

Thanks are extended to Pohnpei Agriculture and the Pacific German Regional Forestry Project (PGRFP) for providing transport to the village and to the Centre of Indigenous Peoples' Nutrition and Environment, PGRFP, and Sight and Life for support funds and materials.