Feeding Community

The past two Thursday evenings I have had the opportunity to cook and serve food at The West Nashville United Methodist Church. Community members (most of whom are homeless) come to the church dining hall every Thursday evening to receive a warm, home cooked meal. Each week meals are prepared by church members and volunteers from the community.

As someone with an interest in the food movement, I work with local produce all the time and think about ways to get local produce on the table. In the process of all of this I often overlook the basic need to get any type of food on the table. It sounds like a silly thing to forget, as this really is (in my opinion) the biggest problem in our food system. How can we create ways to distribute food equally in our community? How can we create a fair food system? I'm sure we have all left food uneaten on our plates before, only to hear from an annoying sibling or friend,  "Don't leave that uneaten! There are starving children in Africa." And yes, while there are starving children in Africa, there are also starving children in Nashville. Perhaps the point of this statement is not to draw attention to the need of aid in Africa, but to point out the absurdity of the abundance of food on my plate, when there are people in the world who don't know where their next meal will come from. I take for granted the fact that I know I will never starve. Between where I work and my family, there is always food available to me.

They are doing their part at the United Methodist Church to get food on everyone's plate. As well as hosting the Thursday community meal, on Saturdays they host "The Little Pantry That Could" in their church basement. Saturday mornings anyone can come by the pantry and receive a bag of food. No questions are asked about income or job and everyone is welcome to come stock up.

Serving the homeless is a good reminder to me as to why I do the work that I do. I hope to make my community less hungry and more healthy.

Kitchen Time

Recently I have been spending a lot of time in our warehouse kitchen. My schedule has allowed me to cook, whether it be when I am teaching or preparing a meal with coworkers. I'm sure it will come as no surprise to you that the good food crew is all about good eating. Someone is always cooking something in the kitchen, as it is almost impossible not to when one is surrounded with a bounty of local produce. Needless to say, this job has allowed me to cook way more than I ever have before.

Last week I experimented with cooking and canning fruit which I could then offer to the community at the Farmer's Market on Saturday. After I was handed boxes of strawberries I was given the task of cooking them down. Having never done this before I went into the task a little apprehensive, as being a semi new cook I am still not totally confident that everything I make will come out tasting delicious, especially when there is no recipe to follow. Fortunately the strawberries came out quite tasty and I felt pleased with my product as I screwed the lid on the last Mason Jar which now contained a bright red pulp.

When sampling out and talking to people about the strawberries on Saturday I felt a sense of pride in the product I had produced. It made me think about the sense of pride a farmer must feel when they are finally able to sell produce they have been investing in since it was a tiny seed. Not that my task can really compare to the strenuous work that a farmer has to complete each day, but I felt a sense of ownership over my little creation.