During our last class, I presented a powerpoint presentation
rather than lead the gift-giving tour we had planned.
The hospital regulations made it difficult and, after all our travels,
we needed time as class to be together one last time.
[Picture of little children at a picnic (NYPL)] Several women cooed over the children in the picture as I expressed how the picture symbolized for me all that coming together around food can be – friendship and love.
As Laura Button reminded us during her presentation, food and love go hand-in-hand. Ever since our childhood, mothers and grandmothers showed us love with homemade cookies and meals three times a day. Fathers worked hard to make sure we could buy the ingredients in the first place, and he took the family out to dinner on special occasions. Romance finds its expression at expensive restaurants and boxes of chocolate. When families that love one another dearly travel great distances to see each other’s smiling faces, they gather around hot food. So many times a gift of encouragment or thankfulness is something good to eat wrapped in colored celophane.
I asked the class for their own experiences with food and love. Mr. N talked of his experiences in Lebanon as friends would gather and sip their beverages slowly, enjoying laughter and conversation and food. Mrs. M reminded us about going over to grandma’s house for a meal.
My next goal was to put gift giving in a larger context. Explaining that I was going to discuss the meaning of gift giving and the meaning of food from my perspective and then ask for theirs, I proceeded with the following thoughts:
Since the beginning of the universe, our Maker has expressed His goodness and mercy to all humans everywhere by making the sun to shine, the rain to fall, seed time and harvest to come with striking regularity.
"… the living God… did not leave Himself without witness, in that He did good, gave us rain from heaven and fruitful seasons, filling our hearts with food and gladness."
Paul the Apostle of Jesus Christ, Acts 14:15,17.
"He causes the grass to grow for the cattle, and vegetation for the service of man, that he may bring forth food from the earth, and wine that makes glad the heart of man, oil to make his face shine, and bread which strengthens man’s heart…. Praise the Lord!"
Psalm 104:14-15
The Creator of heaven and earth has been giving good gifts to the unjust and the just, the evil and the good, since the beginning of time. This is why we now give gifts to our neighbors, I concluded. We have received this tremendous outpouring of goodness, and we give goodness (often in the form of food and drink) to others!
I also noted how fascinating it was for me to realize that the Jewish people - during the time they had a central place of worship – offered sacrifices of food to the Lord. Grain, cakes, wafers, animals that would have been used for food, and drinks were common offerings. The God of heaven and earth gives food to us, and we thank him with gifts of His bounty.
Furthermore, our practice of giving food as gifts extends to ancient times. I told them about the prophet Jeremiah who was commanded not to participate in the people’s funeral celebrations because of the punishment that would soon be inflicted. The Lord uses the people’s practice of encouraging one another with drink and of bringing one another food when someone had died as descriptive of normal practices surrounding times of death in that ancient culture.
God Creating Heaven and Earth
God Creating the Stars
God Creating Birds and Fish
God Creating Animals
The Meaning of Food
These pictures came from a Bible made in 1445 by Cunradus Schlapperitzi [NYPL]. I found them interesting because of when they were made.
After noting the pictures of God creating, we spoke of the significance of food as we know it. Humans could be eating a little wafer every day and could receive all their nutrients. Instead, we enjoy a vastness, a variety, an abundance, a wildness, an astounding creativity. We find that the substances by which our bodies and souls are nourished invite all five senses.
Food highlights our interdependence to one another. Whether living in a rural farm community in which each family member’s role is essential to survival or living in a metropolitan community in which each citizen does work that enables others to do theirs effectively, we depend on one another to eat each day.
Finally, we eat food only by receiving it first. All these qualities express the significance of food as something created with intention and graciously given by the Creator of heaven and earth!
Mrs. C remarked how another quality of food was that it required work; many of us today would rather just sit behind a computer and not really work. She also noted how a science fiction movie had pictured the future as a time in which the elderly were ground up into small wafers that fed the entire world population.
"Der Sommer"
Grimmer Abel’s “Der Sommer” (1607) pictured the harvest time, which again points us to the amazing faithfulness of our Creator who brings us the seedtime and harvest, the winter and spring, and the rain and the sunshine in the most dependable way.
Gladness!!!!
As the psalmist expressed gleefully, “Gladness!!!!” is our response to all this wonder!
Ways to Love with Food…
*Nourishment refers to the way we love others by preparing meals or dishes for them to enjoy. An example would be cooking for a spouse.
*Community refers to our use of food to gather people together for rich fellowship and enjoyment of one another.
*Gifts of surprise or celebration refer to specific gifts of food we offer to others just to surprise them or to celebrate an event or accomplishment.
*Participating with those in need refers to the integral role food plays in our relationship to those who lack.
Nourishment
An example from a collection of book jackets, dating 1933 (NYPL)
When we are making a meal for a spouse, or dinner guests, or for a potluck, are we considering what will actually nourish the body and soul of those who will receive the gift?
As I talked with them about this concept of nourishing others with really good food rather than convenient, bad-for-you food, I served them homemade granola and non-fat yogurt. They were so excited!! I had to practice what I was preaching.
Surprise and Celebration
Publisher's proofs of the publications of L. Prang & Co. : volume 16. Annie C. Nowell is the artist. [NYPL]
This slide was not in the original presentation. I skipped the section on Surprise and Celebration until we had come to the slide about Participating with Those in Need. Before or after we talked about that topic, we looked over a handout that gave ideas for surprising others or celebrating with them by nourishing gifts.
See the handout in .doc or .pdf
Inspiring Togetherness
The picture of the canning club was taken by the USDA (NYPL).
Most of the students had a good bit to say about this topic. We all understand the enjoyment, need, and lack of rich community life around meals. Discussions mentioned lack of a dinner as a family in our culture, examples of brightening people’s lives by giving them attention as we shop at Kroger’s or visit shut-ins, the popularity of senior center lunches because of the friendships formed (even though the lunches have now been disbanded and were not-so-tasty), and the necessity of atmosphere at a meal (humor, music, conversation).
We considered several examples of ways others are nourishing community around meals:
Buying from a CSA brings one into contact with a farmer’s family and other CSA members on a weekly basis; friendship and care grow as weeks turn into months of sharing the farms abundance.
Dinner Co-op – Families cook one big meal every week to share with two or three other families. Each family has a different night of the week. By doing this, the work load for providing a nourishing meal lessens and the connection with other families heightens. I read about these innovative families on page 221 of Simply in Season.
Children and Mother’s Playtime Co-op – Mother’s found the plan of sharing homes and sharing the load of preparing good food an excellent way to stay connected during the often lonely years of childrearing. (Page 221 of Simply in Season)
Theme Dinners – By choosing a theme (all red food with all red clothing, a specific culture, etc.), potluck dinners together can become something more than food but also a chance to learn and make memories (page 197 of Simply in Season)
Participating with Those in Need
The logo for Heifer International was displayed on the screen.
Our discussion centered on pursuing ways of helping the poor that do not include giving to others all the cheap, unhealthy food just because it’s cheap. The low price of junk food is one reason obesity and poverty are linked. There are more calories for less money in junk food; that will satisfy a hungry person more for the moment than more nourishing foods which cost more per calorie (Simply in Season).
One church bought a subscription to a CSA so those with little resources could have fresh, organic vegetables (Simply in Season).
Heifer International has been making it possible for people with resources to help those with little in ways that extend further than a meal will. Heifer provides animals, the training to feed and care for them, and the charge to give the progeny to others in need.
We can seek other ways of bringing real people in need into our lives over good, nourishing food.
"Benedicte"
Charles Emile Jacque’s(1813 – 1894) etching,
entitled “Benedicte,” graced our screen.
I offered up three prayers – one a shopper’s plea and two creative prayers of thanksgiving - as a fitting end to our time together. [NYPL]
A Shopper’s Prayer (page 277 Simply in Season)
Provider God,
Transform this chore, this reluctant shopper.
Journey with me on this expedition of privilege.
I stroll past the breads cooling on the trolley;
yeast-smells proclaim their rising
and invite me to taste and see that they are good.
My hand hovers over the carrots, parsnips, beets….
Thank you for signs of your presence,
for foods and peoples rooted in the soil.
Bless me as I choose.
-Ruth Preston, Schilk, Lethbridge, Alta.
A Tasty Prayer of Thanks (page 219 Simply in Season)
Delicious Creator God,
I taste your glory in the tangy crunch of a crisp apple.
I taste your glory in salty tears of emotion.
I taste your glory in cool, clear, life-giving water.
I taste your glory in the heavy sweetness of dark chocolate.
Your glory flavors the early peas and new lettuce of spring,
the raspberries and sour cherries of my backyard,
the mealy goodness of new potatoes and butternut squash,
it steeps in my tea and bakes in my peach cobbler.
For the nibbles and feasts of your glory and for my taste buds,
I give you thanks.
-Donna Mast, Scottdale, Pa.
A Prayer for Growers and Eaters (page 171 Simply in Season)
Generous God, Source of all we enjoy around this table,
thank you for the rich flavors, crisp colors, and simple foods
that fill us and please us.
We remember those who have labored long on our behalf.
For farmers near and far, for their households,
their land and their communities,
we ask your sustaining grace.
Give hope, health, and fruitfulness to your people who farm.
Fill us with the Spirit’s generosity and joy
so that we may fittingly eat at the table you have set
and serve the world you have made. Amen.
-Jennifer Davis Sensenig, Pasadena, Calif.
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