'Pancakes' - a recipe for human thriving
Hey, Its Ellis here - Project Positivity's founder
​Early in 2023, age 13, I asked myself 'what creates a thriving human being?' and 'how can I illustrate this in an accessible, easy to understand and visually engaging​ way?'. I came up with 'Pancakes' where each food ingredient represents a different element for human thriving. It shows that when you reduce or take an element away that it can become harder to thrive. Watch or read 'Pancakes' below.
Read 'Pancakes' - a recipe for human thriving
To make some tasty pancakes, you'll need 150g of plain flour, 1tsp of baking powder, two pinches of salt, 30g of caster sugar, one egg and 150ml of milk. Add this all together, give it a good whisk to create the batter and then cook the pancakes in a pan. Delicious.
Now imagine the 150g of plain flour represents having access to clean water, food, clothing, money, fulfilling work and a home. The one tsp of baking powder represents a loving family or carer. The two pinches of salt represents a positive social experience in person and online. The 30g of caster sugar represents a supportive and stimulating education system. The egg represents access to other essential services including healthcare, financial services, legal support and public transport. The 150ml of milk represents a peaceful, thriving, sustainable environment.
There can be slight variation in the amount of each ingredient used to create a thriving human life, but if the required ingredients are lost or too little it becomes hard to thrive. For example, if only 25ml of milk goes into the batter instead of 150ml, the desired pancake will not be created.
'Pancakes' and Project Positivity
The 'Pancakes' analogy identifies fundamental conditions for human thriving. It is not simply black and white for whether a human thrives or not - people often find ways to overcome difficulties and thrive. There are many more complexities to human thriving than 'Pancakes' highlights.
Project Positivity is made up of three campaigns with the collective mission of supporting human thriving and helping to save our planet: Education, Social and Environment. Project Positivity Education focuses on the need for education system reform to better support human thriving. Social focuses on social issues which can negatively affect human thriving such as poverty. Environment promotes environmental action because without a thriving planet, there can be no thriving humanity.