September 30, 2008

CHICAGO – Lutherans have produced a cookbook – "Food for Life: Recipes and Stories on the Right to Food" – that calls attention to the global food crisis. Containing more than 100 recipes from around the world, the cookbook features stories, photographs and table blessings illustrating how Lutherans take part in food production, addressing issues of food scarcity, sharing culturally nutritious dishes and more.

"As Lutherans in North America, we cannot live without our cookbooks," said the Rev. Teresita "Tita" C. Valeriano, North American regional officer, Lutheran World Federation (LWF). But Food for Life is not an ordinary cookbook, she said. "Its purpose is not only to try and taste international recipes but to celebrate our diversity and lift up the concerns of the poor and hungry. It serves to tell our stories in creating a better world where all people have the right to food and education."

Food for Life is organized into four chapters or "cycles": agricultural – dishes for growing, planting, harvesting, and "hungry" seasons; religious – recipes for religious celebrations and observances; life – birthdays, weddings, funerals and other events; and daily life – breakfast, lunch, dinner, desserts and snacks.

Available in hardcover and paperback, the cookbook includes a conversion table for cooking measurements, "exotic" ingredients, country information and more. There are European and North America versions; recipes have been tested and adapted for these settings.

Food for Life demonstrates how the LWF – a global communion of churches representing 68.3 million of the world's Lutherans – is present and active around the world, said Valeriano. One- third of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America's (ELCA) World Hunger Appeal funds goes directly to LWF projects that strengthen global food security, long-term capacity building, education, development programs and more, she said. The ELCA is a member of the LWF.

Citing a 2008 LWF resolution on the global food crisis, Valeriano said the food crisis "is not a short-term anomaly but the result of longstanding and deeply entrenched policies, trends and structural injustices related to land access and use, agricultural production methods and subsidies, diversion of productive agricultural land for bio-fuel crops, international trade and speculation in agricultural commodities, (and) urbanization exacerbated by climate change."

"We see the cookbook as an educational tool, inviting people to be radically challenged to advocate for justice issues like the right to food for all people," said Valeriano. "We in North America should address our abundance surrounding food. When we talk about poverty, we tend to think of it as ‘out there,' when the responsibility is ‘right here,'" she said.

Produced by the LWF, ELCA and the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Canada (ELCIC), the North American version of Food for Life will be ready for shipment starting Oct. 3. The North American version features a foreword from the Rev. Mark S. Hanson, ELCA presiding bishop and LWF president, and the Rev. Susan C. Johnson, ELCIC national bishop. It also highlights two examples of food security programs in North America supported by the ELCA and ELCIC, said Valeriano.

Staff of the ELCA churchwide office here will celebrate the book's release during worship Oct. 15, "the day before the United Nations' World Food Day," said Valeriano. A local bakery will prepare the bread served during Holy Communion using recipes from Food for Life as well as prepare samples of other dishes, such as the "Nthochi (banana) Bread" from Malawi, for a reception following worship.

Food for Life is available through Augsburg Fortress, Minneapolis, the publishing ministry of the ELCA.

ELCA News Service