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SOUL FOOD
By LINDA M. LINONIS
youngstown
There will be plenty of food for thought presented at a lay-led service at 11 a.m. Sunday at First Unitarian Universalist Church, 1105 Elm St.
The theme of worship, “Food Glorious Food,” will serve up an array of ideas on the role food plays in the spiritual journey. The service was planned to coincide with the Thanksgiving weekend when some enjoy a bounty of food while others lack food resources. Donations for Second Harvest Food Bank will be the offering.
Sarah Lown, who will be a worship leader with BeckyAnn Harker, said the service will discuss food in many contexts ... “as a sickness ... having anorexia, food as a calling ... being a chef, food as an art form and food production.”
“We hope participants leave with a good sense of how to best use food,” she said.
Lown said the service was timed for the Thanksgiving weekend when food takes a prominent position through Christmas.
The Rev. Matt Alspaugh, consulting minister at the Unitarian church, said, “Food is central to celebrations.” He pointed out Christians ascribe to the idea of giving food and shelter to those in need. Certain foods have symbolic meanings for the Jewish observance of Passover and fasting followed by a feast is practiced by Muslims during Ramadan.
“We have an obligation to care for those who need food and shelter. It’s an essential component of religious responsibility," the Rev. Mr. Alspaugh said. That idea reflects the concept in Bible verses in which Jesus talks about giving food and drink to “the least of my brethren.”
Lown said the service will draw on various religious resources. “We try to be inclusive ... such as learning about Hindu and Buddhist traditions and beliefs,” she said.
She also noted the Bible as a resource. Familiar passages relating to food include Jesus turning water to wine and the loaves and fishes.
Mr. Alspaugh said celebrations with food may take people on different paths — abstinence, moderation and indulgence. “The secular culture seems to promote overindulgence in food and gift giving,” he said.
He said it’s up to individuals to modify and cut back. “Homemade stuff is an alternative,” he said. He added that gift-giving can be a teaching moment in families who may support a church activity such as the Heifer Project. Donations buy a heifer, goat, chickens and sheep for people in poverty, who use the livestock to become self-sustaining.
BeckyAnn Harker, director of religious education at the church, said the multi-generational service provides an opportunity to take light-hearted and serious looks at food. The service will include poems on food along with information about local farm markets and food sustainability. The church hosts a farmers’ market from 10 a.m. to noon Saturdays, which continues through Dec. 24.
“We’re part of an interdependent web of existence,” Harker said, referring to the food process from grower to consumer.
Jim Converse, a church member and farm-market manager since 2003, said the church’s food projects are part of its social action. “It’s about making more foods available,” he said. Sponsoring the farmers’ market at Wick Park during the spring and summer and in the church once the weather turns is one way the church is involved. Neighbors can walk to the park or church to buy fresh produce at the market.
Converse brings hands-on and academic knowledge to the project. Semi-retired, he grew up on a farm and taught rural sociology at Cornell University.
Through the Farm-to-Family Project, he said church members helped Martin Luther King Elementary School start a community garden. Though the pumpkin patch had growing problems, Converse said the plan is to try again. A Lake-to-River Co-op farmer made 350 pumpkins available to students.
The food co-op is an outgrowth of the farmers’ market, Converse said. It delivers about 3,600 apples weekly to local schools. Converse also said the church supports Fair Trade coffee and tea products.
“In a small way, it’s helping people. I think it’s a challenge to people of good will to do justice,” he said. “Jesus went about doing good, a lot of us are happy just going about,” Converse said, noting that the food projects are a concrete way to help people with limited resources.
Dr. Dan Materna, a psychologist from Hermitage, Pa., and church member since last January, offered another angle on food. “It’s hard not to be a food junkie,” said Materna, referring to the variety and amount of foods available.
Society sends mixed messages, he said. “It’s all super-sized. Temptation is everywhere,” he said, adding that “food is so heavily advertised and hits emotions.” A competing message emphasizes physical appearance.
Materna said babies are introduced to food as comfort from the beginning of their lives, with mom being the source of nourishment and caring. “Emotional eating is something many people can relate to,” Materna said. “For some, eating is a way to manage stress and get comfort.”
But for some, unhealthy food consumption turns into an eating disorder such as anorexia, bulimia or obesity.
Materna, whose background includes working at an eating-disorder clinic and Children’s Hospital in Cleveland, said the issue of control is key.
In general, people have control over what they eat and drink when other parts of their lives are not self-directed. The control can express itself by starving, binging and purging and overeating.
He noted religion and spirituality may provide comfort and a “needed safe harbor” for those with eating disorders but professional intervention is necessary for treatment.