Eating together ... with stewardship!
Eating together is wonderful fellowship for congregations. And the food and beverages choices you make can be part of your justice efforts. Your choices affect poor people all over the world today, future generations, and all of God's creation.
The global warming connection to your food
- Meat production: Because of land-use changes due to raising livestock as well as livestock's production of methane and other greenhouse gases, American meat eaters are responsible for 1.5 more tons of carbon dioxide equivalent per person than vegetarians every year. Choose to eat less meat, and you're choosing to prevent global warming. For more info...
- Transporting food from afar: Researchers estimate that meals from local sources created 5 to 17 times less carbon dioxide emissions than a meal bought from the conventional food chain.
As local as you can get - right in your own backyard!
Congregation members can grow vegetables at home, but if your house of worship's grounds are growing nothing but lawn, why not start a vegetable garden to provide the most nutritious food possible for your food pantry - "home"- grown produce! In addition to providing habitat for wildlife, this is the best stewardship of your land.
Real stories from the National Council of Church of Christ's Eco-Justice Network about congregations helping with community gardens, farmers markets and more!
Challenge your Congregation to Eat Local: Host a '100-mile Potluck' - This Fall's Adamah Challenge is to host a 100-mile potluck at your church. A 100-mile potluck is a communal meal in which participants prepare and bring the abundance of food grown or made within a 100 mile radius. This is an opportunity to support local farmers and protect creation. Click here to get your congregation involved. Every season, the NCC's Eco-Justice Program invites churches to participate in a new Adamah Challenge-a simple, but eco-friendly act that can involve an entire congregation and raise awareness about the ecological problems we face.
Sacred Foods Conference
What makes food sacred? There are many resources available for all Abrahamic traditions. The Study is organized according to eight dimensions. Each of the eight dimensions are drawn from four sets of sources from the classic texts of the three traditions: The Hebrew Bible, the Talmud, the Christian Scriptures or New Testament, and the Qur’an and Sunnah.
Serve justice coffee at your congregational events
Justice coffee is:
- Fair Trade - for the farmer,
- shade-grown - for the birds, and
- organic - for the earth.
Teas, cocoa, and other items are also available. For more info ...
PB&J Project
When is Peanut Butter and Jelly more than just a quick snack? When it's the PB&J Campaign! This simple project can communicate a lot about the environmental impacts of our food choices. This would be a suitable project for the whole congregation or for children and youth.
Pot luck with a difference
Sponsor a vegetarian "Low on the food chain" potluck with a variety of great-tasting recipes that don't include meat. Display posters with information about how meat production affects the world (as well as the fact that most Americans eat unhealthy quantities of meat.)
Go the Extra Mile in your October CROP Walk
Congregations enthusiastically support the CROP Walk to help stop hunger. Our personal food choices and national policies also affect hunger in the world (as well as global warming, water supplies, pollution, and so on). Take advantage of this annual focus on hunger to address these larger issues as well. For example, before sending your walkers out, serve a "low on the food chain" meal and discuss how this choice impacts others around the world.
Thanksgiving everyday resources
These free resources from the National Council of Churches Eco-Justice Program are especially appropriate at Thanksgiving, but are useful all year. To download…
- At the Lord's Table: Everyday Thanksgiving
- Our Daily Bread: Harvesters of Hope and Gardeners of Eden
- You can also submit a prayer for Thanksgiving grace to add to their collection
Food for Thought
Launch the Food for Thought (And Action!) campaign right in your own congregation.
Bread for the World
Start a Bread for the World campaign.
