Purpose: We rarely realize how dependent we are on all kinds of people. This exercise helps us see that our lives are enriched by many other people in ways we often do not think about.

Materials needed: Bag of potato chips

Instructions:

“Look at this bag of chips. Let’s think about how many people were involved in making this bag of chips available to us today.”

List everyone who was involved in making this bag of chips available to us.

Answers will include: farmers, pickers, truckers, processors, grocery stores. Then dig further: what kinds of functions/jobs on the farm were required for us to have this bag of chips? The owner, the purchaser of seeds, the mechanic which keeps the equipment running, the field workers, the people who build the boxes or shipping containers, etc. The processing plant will have the computer engineers, the housekeepers to keep the plant clean, the chemists who develop the “recipes,” the human resources people who hire the workers, etc. Even before that, universities will have professors and students who explore ways to produce better and better potatoes, etc. There will be graphic artists designing the bag, advertisers convincing us that this bag of chips is better than another. Could there be as many as 100 people involved?

Think about how important each of these people are to every person who enjoys a bag of chips. Ask: Do we equally value each one of the people involved in the process of our bag of chips? Why or why not?

Consider the interconnectedness of people, our caring for each other, how each person is important to our own personal enjoyment of life, etc.

How we can improve our appreciation and treatment of people who are important to our livelihood and whom we have neglected to think about?

 

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