April 20, 2005
by Evan Silverstein

LOUISVILLE – The Presbyterian Hunger Program (PHP), in collaboration with two other organizations, has developed a seven-week curriculum for congregations exploring the relationship between the way we eat and the way we live.

Just Eating? Practicing Our Faith at the Table aims to bring into dialogue daily eating habits, the Christian faith and the "needs of the broader world" through readings, action steps and healthy eating tips.

"Never before has the Presbyterian Church produced a full curriculum on eating," said Andrew Kang Bartlett, a PHP staffer who oversaw the project's completion. "The 2002 PC(USA) General Assembly report, ‘We Are What We Eat' provides Presbyterians with great analysis and a picture of many emerging alternatives, and Just Eating? gives people, including high schoolers, tools that help us ponder the wider impact of what we eat."

Scripture, prayer and stories from the local and global community are used to explore four key aspects of Christians' relationship with food:

• the health of our bodies

• the health of the earth that provides our food

• the ways we use food to extend hospitality and enrich relationships

• the challenge of hunger.

Other objectives of the Just Eating? curriculum include exploring faith practices that encourage healthful eating and supporting each other in taking personal and congregational action that reaches beyond the curriculum.

"The title of course has a double meaning," Kang Bartlett said. "We can just eat as a mundane activity done without mindfulness, or we can eat justly and explore the relationship between our food and justice. Eating can be a vehicle for practicing our faith."

Written by Jennifer Halteman Schrock, a freelance writer and active lay member of the Mennonite Church U.S.A., the curriculum takes participants on a journey from the "table of the Lord to the table of the world that will challenge, encourage and enrich all who participate," Kang Bartlett said.

Advocate Health Care, a faith-based health system serving metropolitan Chicago, and Church World Service, an international hunger and development agency, worked with PHP on the project.

The development of the curriculum was funded by grants from the Valparaiso Practice Grants Program, the Genesis Fund of the United Church of Christ, the Presbytery of Chicago Hunger Mission Team, and the Presbyterian Hunger Program.

PHP was established in 1969 as a vehicle for Presbyterians to be engaged in the fight against hunger in the United States and around the world.

To order the new curriculum, call the Presbyterian Distribution Service at (800) 524-2612 or visit http://www.pcusa.org/marketplace/. It is also available for download at no cost at http://www.pcusa.org/hunger/food/justeating.htm. When ordering, use PDS# 74365-05-361 for participant guide. The price is $4 (one to nine copies) or $3 (10 or more). The leader's guide, PDS#74365-05-362, is priced at $5.50.

Presbyterian News Service