Meet Kallie. She is a normal girl in the 4th grade when we start our story. She loves to play with her friends and brother. History is her favorite subject in school, she has a dog named Junie and her favorite thing to do is go to amusement parks. One thing that makes Kallie different is that she comes from a big family with many different cultures 

Something that Kallie had learned is even though she is from many different cultures, something that connected them all was their love of food. In fact, her family owned a small restaurant where they would serve all of their family's traditional food. Kallie worked there after school sometimes! She especially looked forward to special food on holidays like latkes on Hannukah or grilled octopus on Easter.

Kallie loved learning to cook these different foods and was very proud of where she came from and her small family restaurant. She would tell anyone that would listen about all of the food she loved to eat that no one had ever heard before! She thought it was really unique.

As Kallie got older she noticed that her classmates seemed to not think it was as unique as she did... some even thought her food was gross. People would stop sitting next to her in the cafeteria because they said her food "smelled weird and looked bad". This was the first time Kallie ever felt ashamed of where she came from. Her classmates would even tease her for working in the restaurant! 

Kallie decided that her culture and special food would just be saved for at her house and with her family. She did not like being teased and did not think that her classmates appreciated what she thought was so special. She still looked forward to all of her favorite foods but she kept it to herself. 

Eventually, Kallie graduated high school with her large family cheering her on. She decided to go to college 9 hours away from her family and when she left of course her grandmother sent her with a big bag of Koulurakia (her famous Greek cookies)