Food & Faith

 

Sharing Food:
Identifying ways we can practice table fellowship.
 
Table fellowship is central to our identity as Christians.

At Christ’s table, Christ is the host, there is no permanent seating, and everyone is welcome.

 
Some of the kinds of shared meals and what happens at these tables:
Eucharist/Lord’s Supper/Communion ~ enter into a relationship with God, Christ Jesus, and the Holy Spirit, grace, celebration, remembering/re-membering, unconditional acceptance, liberation, eternal abundant life, and peace.
Round Table ~ mutuality and disruption of relationships of power
Kitchen Table ~ the place of work, discourse, intimacy, and solidarity
Welcome Table ~ the place of hospitality, humanization, and inclusivity for the more than human  understanding that All are welcome to the table
This obliges us to build relationships of mutuality, to share God’s abundance, seek justice, and participate in fair distribution of food and water.
Our Table Fellowship gives rise to faithful and responsible food practices. Jennifer Ayres in her book “Good Food; Grounded Practical Theology” states; “Among the moral commitments at the core of food practices are the prioritization of the hungry, solidarity with and advocacy for those who work the land, the call to care gently for the land, and the reestablishment of bonds of interdependence between humans and the sources of our food.” We have covered much of the background and complexity of these commitments in our discussions over the last few years. The Four Moral Commitments: Priority of the Hungry, Justice for those who work the land, Tending and caring for the Earth, Cultivating and nurturing a keen sense of the inter-relatedness of humanity and all of creation. Our Biblical text and witness are clear in their moral demand; as long as the hungry are among us, they are our priority. (Leviticus, Ruth, 2 Kings 42-44, and Mark 6:35-44 ~ just to name a few).
We studied,  “Wasted!  The Story of Food Waste.”
 
Through the eyes of famous chefs, this documentary enabled audiences to see how they make the most of every kind of food, transforming what most people consider scraps into incredible dishes that create a more secure food system.
We watched the movie, “A Place at the Table.”  A Place at the Table tells the powerful stories of three such Americans, who maintain their dignity even as they struggle just to eat. In a riveting journey that will change forever how you think about the hungry.
 
A Place at the Table shows how the issue could be solved forever, once the American public decides—as they have in the past—that ending hunger is in the best interests of us all.
LocalShare presented our topic:  “Sharing Food”. LocalShare is a program of the Foodshed Alliance, a grassroots, non-profit devoted to promoting sustainable farming and locally grown, fresh, healthy food in northwestern New Jersey.
 
The mission of the Foodshed Alliance’s LocalShare program is to connect people in need to locally grown, natural foods. By involving the volunteer efforts of everyone in our community, we glean foods from local fields, turning what farmers could not harvest into nutrition for our neighbors who need it most.