FULL -- Eating at the Center: Food, Faith and Friends

Introduction:
“Unless our human species can open itself to the contemplation of food as a holy mystery through which we eat ourselves into existence, then the meaning of existence will continue to elude us. Our present cultural experience of food has degenerated into food as fuel, for supplying the energy for our insatiable search for that which will fill the hungers of our soul. When we understand that food is not a metaphor for spiritual nourishment, but is itself spiritual, then we eat food with a spiritual attitude and taste and are nourished by the Divine directly” –Sister Miriam Therese MacGillis of Genesis Farm, located in New Jersey.

We are in a pivotal time with food awareness and activism on the rise worldwide. In the United States, citizens are becoming increasingly interested and invested in knowing and choosing where and how their food is produced. The terms “organic”, “local”, “small-scale”, “bioregionalism” aren’t trendy catch-phrases but are born out of serious concerns surrounding the impacts of our current large-scale agricultural practices and food industries and the disconnection from the Earth that comes with them. Further, spirituality and eating are rarely discussed together as religion, science, and lifestyle choices continue to be at very different parts of a spectrum. Yet encouragingly, many people, including those of faith, are asking more questions and working for more rights—rights for themselves, for children, for underprivileged, for food workers, for the voiceless, which includes non-human animals, and for the land itself, which without we could not subsist.

The invitation in the theme of the 2011 Gathering, “Meeting at the Center”, as well as it’s location in the geographic and agricultural heartland of the United States provide Friends rich opportunities for joining this conversation and work, celebrating food, and exploring what it means to truly meet and eat at the center.

Objectives:
“Eating at the Center” will be a collectively created workshop. Participants should come with open palates, minds, and spirits, prepared to share stories, readings, recipes, gardening tips, worship, and a desire to search deeply for our food and eating truths.

Each day of the workshop will cover a theme or topic different from the one before, with primary focus on issues in the United States. The week will begin with “roots”, when we will share our food histories and discuss the prairie as the ecosystem that once dominated the Midwest and is largely responsible for Iowa’s fertile soil. Other topics throughout the week will include food choice, the agricultural landscape and food geography today, food ethics and justice (which, for the purposes of this workshop, will include human and non-human justice as well as land justice), home-scale gardening ideas and tips, youth concerns and empowerment, among other related topics. We will conclude the week with “bringing it home”, revisiting the theme of the workshop by looking at how other faith communities are participating in work surrounding food “soulutions” in the U.S. and abroad. Finally, participants in the workshop will be invited to discern how we as Friends and as inhabitants of the Earth can cultivate food and faith more deeply into our daily lives.

This workshop is designed to be primarily discussion-based and will rely heavily on group participation. Information will be delivered through lecture/presentation, readings from the suggested reading list and other resources as well as from some Biblical references to land and animal stewardship, guest speaker(s), video, and a potential field trip. We will have periods of worship each day and participants are encouraged to keep a journal for note-taking and/or reflections. Lastly, there will be food available on various days of the workshop that represent local and seasonal produce from farms in the region.

Suggested readings:
The following texts are highly recommended but not required to have read before the workshop. We will be referencing them throughout the week, and they will be available in the Gathering bookstore for purchase.

•Bread, Body, Spirit: Finding the Sacred in Food, edited by Alice Peck, Skylight Paths, 2008

•Food & Faith: justice, joy and daily bread, edited & compiled by Michael Schut, Earth Ministries, 2006

What to bring:
•Food narratives and/or histories: This is a very optional pre-writing assignment that shares your food story, whether it is an examination of your current relationship with or your familial and cultural ties to food. There will be time to share these throughout the week. If it helps, consider the following questions: What would you describe as the roots of why you eat what you eat? What or who have your food choices been influenced by? What does food mean to you? What do you think of or feel when you hear the phrase "food and faith"? How has spirituality impacted how you interact with eating?
•Any epistles or other statements that your meeting has created surrounding food issues.
•Note-taking paper; hand-outs will be limited.
•Journal or other venues for personal reflection and creativity.
•Favorite recipes that are a part of your food story.
•Comfortable clothing and shoes for a possible field trip, and/or having class outdoors as weather permits.