SPRINGDALE, Ark. — The month of May is Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month.
According to the Northwest Arkansas Council, as of 2022, 4% of the population of Northwest Arkansas is Asian, and 2% is Pacific Islander. While that might seem like a small percentage, it’s making a big difference.
Malia Tataichy, Alleila Rosevelt, and Jola Elcar are fifth graders at Jones Elementary in Springdale.
“I decided to do a cookbook because my culture isn’t well known. And food is a really big part of the culture,” Malia said.
Malia Tataichy is from the island of Chuuk, one of the four states of the Federated States of Micronesia, located in the Western Pacific, about 2,500 miles southwest of Hawaii.
“A lot of people assumed that I was Marshallese and so I really wanted to put my culture out there to let them know,” she said.
When sitting in Education Accelerated by Service and Technology (EAST) class with her teacher Mr. Shane Benson, she came up with the idea to create a cookbook.
“EAST is a project-based learning class with an emphasis on technology. And our whole idea is that kids get to choose their own passions and projects,” said Benson.
According to Mr. Benson, there are two things she wanted to tackle with this project.
“And one of those was food insecurity. And the other was just to represent their islands and their culture,” Benson said.
Soon after starting on the project, it didn’t take long for Malia to realize she had classmates who felt the same way she did.
Alleila is from Pohnpei, another of the four states of Micronesia.
"I wanted to join this cookbook because my culture, it isn't very well known just like Malia’s. And also because I just wanted to put out there what I know about my culture and my cultural foods,” Alleila said.
Jola is from the Marshall Islands, a group of islands in the central Pacific, between Hawaii and the Phillippines. The Marshall Islands are also considered as part of Micronesia.
“The only culture food that people know is rice and chicken and I wanted to share more recipes about my culture food,” Jola said.
While all three girls are from parts of Micronesia, they want people to know that they are not the same, all coming from different and unique backgrounds.
“I’ve learned new recipes like chukuchuk rice balls,” Alleila said.
Helping the girls to not only learn the differences in their cultures — but also the similarities.
“We have a lot of shared recipes with each other, like, sesame, and other stuff,” Alleila said.
The cookbook has multiple pages and the girls have accomplished some pretty neat things. Not only have they had to gather the recipes, but they are also the designers of the Marshallese, Chuukese, and Pohnpeian (MCP) Cookbook.
“My favorite part would be how it's designed because it's really colorful, and it's really different. And it shows our personalities really well,” Alleila said.
Along with designing, they have dabbled in cooking the food themselves and even made a video of the step-by-step cooking process.
“We had to get the ingredients ready. And then we had to take turns with it because we had one camera,” Malia said.
It's no secret the girls have already accomplished a lot with their book of recipes.
“When we first started the cookbook it was like, 4 pages, and now that we have more people we have more like 17,” Alleila said.
But they said there are still quite a few goals they plan to reach to help fight food insecurity while sharing their heritage.
“I want to have links on the cookbook with QR codes on the cookbooks so that when they scan it, it shows a video. And links to the videos,” said Tataichy.
And as the shining students get ready for middle school, they credit their elementary career success to their favorite teacher, Mr. Benson.
“He taught me how to focus on myself because I had a really tough time,” Jola said.
“I feel like he made me get better at researching and learning more,” Alleila said.
“It meant a lot to me because Mr. Brunson would push us to move forward instead of giving up,” Malia said.
While they credit him for a big chapter in their story, he credits them for the impact they are making on not only him but those around them.
“I think these kids are a living example of how they're showing that they actually are putting community first, and they're showing how they want to help others about a basic human need that somehow isn't being met in our own state,” Benson said.
The girls created a way for everyone to try their recipes and learn more about their culture. If you want to try out the recipes you can, by viewing the MCP Cookbook.
Watch 5NEWS on YouTube.
Download the 5NEWS app on your smartphone:
Stream 5NEWS 24/7 on the 5+ app: How to watch the 5+ app on your streaming device
To report a typo or grammatical error, please email KFSMDigitalTeam@tegna.com and detail which story you're referring to.