RootsNFruits

Welcome to the RootsNFruits home page.

RootsNFruits is an original creation of Collective Roots and is a variation of the Classic "Loteria" game that is renown throughout Mexico and Latin America and transformed to reflect themes connected to farmers' markets and food system change. Loteria has some similarities to "Bingo" but is based on images (rather than numbers) that have become cultural icons to many in Mexico and beyond. RootsNFruits presents an original series of images that reflect diverse views on topics related to the global food system, how it impacts our lives, and how it is changing.

Food System Change involves a complex range of concepts
Teaching the full range of these concepts is challenging, and not always "fun"
Loteria is classic game played in Latin America, similar to Bingo, and visually oriented using pictograms
RootsNFruits builds upon a popular game structure and can be easily played in classroom or farmers' market settings (up to several hundred people can play at once)
Prizes offered can be related to the game topics, usually food related (and readily available at farmers' markets), and health promoting (please don't offer donuts as a reward!)
Game pictograms are organized into theme groups that correlated to food system change curriculum topics that can taught in conjunction with the game, and supported by a web site that provides links and resources related to the game (educational content, coupons for healthy food, discounts, ads, etc.)

Loteria Key Elements

54 Cards or images (Designed for Collective Roots)
Game participants each have a card with 16 (4x4) squares (300 unique cards)
Need 4 hits adjacent to each other to win
Game design builds upon original art by a talented group of artists
Custom cards (up to 300 cards can be generated)

Key Themes and Topics

Fruits & Vegetables (herbs/spices/fruit/tubers/roots/vegetables):
Food & Cooking (universal/international/junk/slow/fast/hazards)
People & Culture (farmers/gardeners/fisherman/consumers)
Health & Nutrition (brain food/bone food/proteins/carbs/energy equation)
Environment (macro. micro, meso)
Food Systems (farms, gardens, rural/urban agriculture, corporate/family farms, distribution, locavores, distavores)