What are some positive things you can do to help your kids be healthier and eat better food? We have insight from an expert.
Enjoy Slow Food by Rebecca Barnes-Davies
Savoring good, fresh and healthy food in community is a way to celebrate God’s creation. It is also a way to become renewed and refreshed in order to continue our commitments and efforts to curb climate change.
Slow Food is the name of an international movement that arose in response to the great preponderance of fast-food joints. Standing in stark contrast to cheap, quickly made and overly standardized foods consumed by individuals in a rush to get through meals and on with life, Slow Food encourages people to reclaim the pleasure of dining, taste, local foods and good company.
This idea of slowing down as we engage in reclaiming the pleasure of time spent with other people—gathering and cooking with local ingredients, smelling and tasting lovingly prepared food, and enjoying one another—has much to teach us.
How To’s
1. Find recipes that use local, seasonal ingredients and incorporate them in your cooking.
2. Use the time right before the meal to say grace—to be mindful, thankful and delighted in the gift of food.
3. Make your meals your evening entertainment. Instead of wolfing down dinner in order to get to the movies, enjoy a luxurious dinner and good conversation for your entertainment.
4. Invite friends over for a “slow food” evening in which you cook and eat together and enjoy one another without rushing to other engagements.
5. On a regular basis with some friends, share a meal and then engage in a spiritual practice together, such as contemplative prayer.
Walking the Talk
A small group of friends—including teachers, writers, pastors and community leaders—gathered one evening in northern California to share a slow evening of food and conversation. They turned off cell phones and other electronic devices and placed them in a basket with their watches for the evening.
The evening’s activity was cooking, tasting, smelling, laughing, talking, praying and enjoying. Time, if tracked at all, was only tracked on the kitchen timer needed for cooking. This slow evening was a blessing and a Sabbath for each member of the group, rejuvenating and revitalizing them in an otherwise fast-paced, time-centered world.
Faith Matters
Remove far from me falsehood and lying; give me neither poverty nor riches; feed me with the food that I need, or I shall be full, and deny you, and say, “Who is God?” or I shall be poor, and steal, and profane the name of my God. (
Excerpted with permission from 50 Ways to Help Save the Earth: How You and Your Church Can Make a Difference by Rebecca Barnes-Davies, published in 2009 by Westminster John Knox Press.”
