Sandwich

Story

Your class is going on a school trip, and everyone has been told to bring a sandwich. But your granny insists on making tons of Jamaican food for you to take instead. Embarrassed, you just want to take a sandwich, worried that the other kids will make fun of you. But when lunchtime comes, it turns out the whole class wants to share your delicious feast.

Why we chose it

A poem that’s great to perform which celebrates family and food.

Where it came from

Valerie Bloom (b.1956) is a poet who grew up in Jamaica and moved to the UK in the 1970s. She writes some of her poetry in Jamaican dialect, or patois, and some in English, while others use a mixture of the two. Her childhood was full of community, storytelling, food, and music, all of which are key components of her poetry, including ‘Sandwich.' In the Caribbean, traditional oral storytelling binds poetry and performance together, so most of Bloom’s poems are designed to be performed. ‘Sandwich’ also draws on Bloom’s experiences as a Jamaican living in Britain.

Where it went next

Bloom is a critically acclaimed poet who received an MBE for services to poetry in 2008. She has won many awards, including the CLPE Poetry Award, and her work has appeared on television, stage, and radio. She continues do thousands of workshops, school visits and performances. After she performs her patois poems, such as ‘Sandwich,’ she generally leads a workshop in which she gets children to write about their family, particularly what food they associate with them, as food can speak volumes about different cultures.

Associated stories

Bloom has published many collections of poetry for children, her first being Duppy Jamboree in 1992. She has written books for younger children, such as the counting picture book Fruits (2000), which won the Smarties Bronze Prize. She has also written two novels for children, Surprising Joy (2003) and The Tribe (2007) and appeared in several anthologies.