“Lettuce Links”

 

I was listening to NPR this week and heard of a program called “Lettuce Links” in the Seattle area that collects seeds and gives them to local low-income families so I looked it up.  In their own words, here’s some of the things Lettuce Links does:

 

                                        

• We encourage people to grow food for their families. To promote self-sufficiency, we distribute seeds, plant starts and gardening information to low-income gardeners all over the city.
• We educate children about nutrition and sustainable food production. Also at Marra farm, we facilitate experiential learning programs so elementary students learn about healthy food and how to grow it.
• We coordinate with over 30 P-Patch community gardens.We link P-Patch gardeners with food banks and meals programs. In 2006, over 30,000 pounds of fresh, organic produce was grown and given to over two dozen providers, feeding hundreds of people. To download various P-Patch signs to use in your garden, see “More Information” below.
• We harvest fruit from neighborhood backyards. Lettuce Link’s Community Fruit Tree Harvest project engages volunteers to pick fruit from neighborhood trees and deliver hundreds of pounds of locally grown, unsprayed fruit to meals programs and food banks.
• We garden and donate our organic produce to food banks. At Marra Farm, we cultivate 1/2-acre of historic, urban farmland and donate harvests to a food bank in South Seattle. Read more about our Giving Garden at Marra Farm.

 

I wrote a post a ways back called “Processing Apples and Neighborhood Stewardship” in which I talked about all the fruit in my neighborhood going to waste. It’s wonderful to see that there is an established organization that is dealing with this issue already. I’m looking around for other organizations like this one.  Do you know of any?  I’d love to hear about what’s out there.

(“Lettuce Links” is part of a larger organization  called Solid Ground-”building community to end poverty” which I’m excited to explore a bit more.)

What’s your family food budget?

I found this document in some of my research I’ve been doing and found it interesting.  The USDA does a monthly report on how much families in the United States spend on food by four categories:  Thrifty plan, Low-Cost Plan, Moderate Plan, and Liberal Plan.  Take a look and see where you fall!

USDA Food Plans:  Cost of Food at Four Cost Levels

Justice at Christ’s Table

Envision your local church; the altar, pew, or whatever space in which you take communion.  What does that look like for you?  Now imagine your dinner table, coffee table, couch, where you eat dinner most frequently transported to that space.

What thoughts come to your mind?

Would your dinner plans change in reference to your new surrounding?

What would you eat?

Would the table look different?

Who would be sitting with you?

Who would cook and clean up?

Is it still your dinner table?

A lot of thoughts have been floating in and out of my mind as I’ve been preparing for a workshop I’m facilitating for The Revolution Starts at Home series entitled “Justice at the Table“.  And from the beginning I’ve sensed that I’m missing something.  Something essential, foundational but I couldn’t put my finger on it.

As so often happens in my life something I recently read started to pull it all together for me.  I decided to pick up the book Take This Bread by Sara Miles.  This book is very open look at the life of a amazing women who was dramatically transformed by partaking of the eucharist.  And it dawned on me finally what I was missing in my whole view of food issues and my faith.

I was missing communion, I was missing the body of Christ.  And not just the spiritualized view of the Lord’s Table but the actual down to earth translation of what that meant.  What does it mean to BE Christ’s body for people?  What does it mean to say that his body is offered freely?  And how should that change me?

Christians are in no way unique in their desire to eat justly.  There are many groups the world over that are working extremely hard to change the systems that marginalize others.  But I feel we have an added mandate and it is directly related to Christ’s body.  He not only called himself the Bread of Life but he shared bread with others many times in his ministry.  He didn’t just talk, but literally became what he preached.

I’m at a crossroads right now.  I feel that I can’t just buy fair traded coffee and locally grown produce and say that’s the epitome of food and justice for christian life.  I need a way in which to become the bread,  to become the body and I need to do it in a way that puts me in communion, in the truest sense of that word, with the rest of the body as well.  I’m not sure where this will lead but I think I’m finally at a place where I’m ready to find out.

Justice at the Table Workshop Feb. 7th

Come to our second “The Revolution Starts at Home” event, Justice at the Table! We will explore together the intricate connections between our faith and the food we eat. We will challenge ourselves and each other to bring our eating and buying practices more in line with our beliefs and draft a “Justice at the Table Plan” to help us implement the changes we hope to make.

Registration is required. Register online.
Event Details:

* Date – February 7th, 2009

* Where – Mustard Seed House, 510 NE 81st Street Seattle, WA 98115 (upper floor, back entrance)

* Time – 9am – 3pm

* Food – Coffee, Tea, and a vegetarian lunch is included. Please bring any snack with you that you wish to share.

* Children – Due to our limited space and small staff, we are unable to offer childcare at this event. You are welcome however to bring children 2 and under with you if you feel they’d do well in a room of chatting adults.

* Cost – $40 individual/$35 groups of 2 or more (if cost is prohibitive please contact mail@msainfo.org for scholarship information)

Hosted by Mustard Seed Associates and The Mustard Seed House

A Balanced Look at Fair Trade

I’ve been researching lots of different issues regarding food and justice and found this video on fair trade to be balanced and informative.