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The Eucharist, the Body of Christ, is central to our faith. Since Christ is the Bread of Life, Christians already have a deep and celebratory relationship with food. You can read reflections about our relationships around food this Lent.

More than just a sandwich topping by Laury Rinker
When I eat a hamburger at a fast-food chain or purchase vegetables at a grocery store, I don’t usually think about where my food came from.

But I should.

Take tomatoes, for example. They’re on just about every fast-food burger and in every grocery store in America. They are used to make some of my favorite foods like salsa and tomato soup.

Most of the tomatoes you find at fast-food restaurants and supermarkets come from the state of Florida. Florida tomato pickers are among this country’s most exploited workers.

According to an article in The New York Times, the average tomato picker earned $13,000 a year in 2008. In addition, the workday begins at 5 a.m. or when workers can meet a bus that takes them from town to the tomato fields.The same bus does not deliver workers back to town until the end of the workday or 6 p.m.

In extreme cases, there have been several charges of modern-day slavery and abuse. In one example, according to the Coalition of Immolakee Workers, (CIW) Web site, a family harbored undocumented workers from Mexico. They were sentenced in a case that involved beating, chaining, and enslaving workers who picked tomatoes in Florida’s major farms.

This exploitation happens so that purchasers (especially fast-food chains and supermarkets) can get tomatoes for a cheap price—and so that I can still find my cheeseburger on the dollar menu.

This issue is much bigger than tomatoes. Similar injustices are found throughout the food production industry—in bananas, coffee, and poultry. You name it. When I eat these foods, many times I think of the faces of the men and women who worked under such harsh conditions to bring food to my plate.

What can I do about this?

I can speak up. Organizations like the Coalition of Immokalee Workers (CIW) are working to ensure fair wages and conditions for farm workers in Florida. So far, they have convinced Taco Bell, McDonald’s, Burger King, Whole Foods, Subway, and other corporations to improve wages and promote fair conditions in their tomato supply chains.

And I can be a conscientious consumer. By choosing Fair Trade products, I can be sure that farmers are receiving fair wages. And by giving to ELCA World Hunger, I am helping my church support Fair Trade projects in several different countries around the world.

Laury Rinker lives in Chicago and serves as associate director for marketing communications for the ELCA World Hunger and Disaster Appeal.

There is an African proverb that says, “Plenty sits still; hunger is a wanderer.”

As a girl, I knew that proverb by heart, eventually understanding that I fear being unsettled. If I can, I cling to comfort, though I try to push myself past this. I know why I crave safety: my Grandpa Golden. I knew him only in his “plenty” years, although his memories of want proved unshakable. As with so many from that time, the hardships of the Great Depression ran deep. The lack of food punctuated his memories.

Grandpa was from Mississippi. He didn’t speak of struggles, hunger, or want. He and my grandma ventured north to Iowa with other Blacks during the Great Migration. Yet he alluded to tough times only once—when describing the distinct flavor of “old well water from the pump.”

In the early 1980s, Grandpa lived with us. He had a soft-spoken, powerful presence. Today, I realize his influence made me value safety and helped shape my understanding of family, food, and home.

For Grandpa, each meal was wonderful. Our daily evening dinner took on even more importance with him there. Grandpa was a fan of Mom’s excellent cooking. When we mention him today, mom says, “He liked to eat!” To him, there was no greater compliment.

Eyes sparkling, Grandpa would arrive to watch Mom set the table. This ritual delighted him as much as eating! He’d smile and nod appreciatively at the food, sighing with satisfaction at his particular favorites—of which there were many.

If you didn’t clean your plate or if Mom deemed the amount of leftovers too small to save, Grandpa would hear none of it. “I just can’t stand to see such good food go to waste,” he’d say, carefully moving the bounty to his plate.

One night, as Grandpa completed his pre-dinner ablutions, Dad told us he planned to present Grandpa with a birthday surprise: a rare photo of his father. Happy tears welled in Grandpa’s eyes when Mom unveiled a peach cobbler she’d made for dessert. “From the peaches you canned?” he asked, visibly moved.

Then Dad held out the photo. Incredulous, Grandpa exclaimed, “That’s my daddy!” Sitting back in his chair, Grandpa smiled at the ceiling. It was all too good—too much!

Grandpa found happiness in simple and profound things—in everything. He also cried when he was hurt. By watching him, I saw that in hunger, he sought reasons to give thanks. In plenty, he counted his blessings and
prepared for the road’s next turn.

Karris Golden lives in rural northeast Iowa with her husband, Josh Neessen, and daughter Zoey. She runs two publishing companies that produce books on financial trading and writes regularly for Café, Lutheran Woman Today and The Lutheran. E-mail her at karris@karrisgolden.com.

Next page: "A table for saints" by Susan Schneider and "My food, my faith" by Sylvia High Karlsson.

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What do people gain from all the toil at which they toil under the sun? Ecclesiastes 1:3

Family meals can be hard work. There is the menu planning, grocery shopping, food preparation, cooking, and once the meal is over, washing the dirty dishes and finding space in the fridge for the leftovers.

I recently enjoyed a reunion weekend with my husband’s family in Iowa. Seventeen of us gathered together at Grandma’s and Grandpa’s. At one point during the weekend, one of us remarked that all we seemed to do was move from one meal to the next. It brought a few chuckles, but the comment contained a kernel of truth. With 10 adults and seven children under the age of 10, eating together involved much toil and energy.

The author of Ecclesiastes wrestles with the seemingly endless toil of our days. “Vanity, vanity, all is vanity” is the ongoing pessimistic refrain of the book. Why do we work so hard for that which perishes? The question was very timely for the author. Although he stood in a long line of wisdom teachers (other Old Testament wisdom books include Proverbs and Job), he questions how the wisdom passed on to him can be applied in a new time. In the Hellenistic period, approximately 300 BCE, great changes were afoot in government, economics, the military, and technology. Not unlike our own day, the writer searched for meaning in times of uncertainty and unrest.

We might ask: Is their any benefit to the time spent in eating together or in preparing whole foods? Isn’t it just too much work, given everything else that demands our time and attention?

There is nothing better for mortals than to eat and drink, and find enjoyment in their toil. This also, I saw is from the hand of God. Ecclesiastes 2:24

One afternoon during our family visit, my sister-in-law and her husband were strolling through the backyard. They noticed an abundance of apples on the tree and decided to make two apple pies. While my sister-in-law worked the dough, her husband and I cored and sliced the apples. As we worked, we chatted about our lives — mine here in the states and theirs as missionaries overseas. We had a few disagreements about how many apples to put in each pie pan and whether or not there was enough cinnamon and sugar in the dough. I remember chuckling at the couple’s bickering, recalling similar arguments my husband and I have had in the kitchen, each of us vying to be right. Yet at the end of the day, we found enjoyment in the fruit of our labors. The store-bought pie from the night before couldn’t compare to this home-grown creation.

Over the course of our weekend, most family members had some role in making our weekend replete with delicious food: Grandma shopping in preparation for our visit, Grandpa serving up morning waffles to the kids, beef from another sister’s farm, and, yes, even homemade margaritas to accompany our taco salads. We worked together, yet as we worked, we found enjoyment in our toil.

Two are better than one, because they have a good reward for their toil. Ecclesiastes 4:9

It is all about the relationships. What made mealtimes at our family reunion so memorable were the bonds strengthened by our shared work and eating together around one table. I once heard that the full meaning of the vice gluttony was not only overeating, but also eating without regard for one another. How often do we eat in the car or at our desks, separate from our families or friends? Our fast-paced culture values convenience, often to the detriment of relationships.

I remember that the summer before I was married, I didn’t care much for cooking because I couldn’t share the food with anyone. As a mother, I miss those early years of marriage when cooking and dining was time free from the distractions of “more milk please” and spilled peas. Yet now I savor the ways my three-year-old helps as we cook our meals. He is learning the value of cooking and eating together. The reward for our toil in food preparation comes from these kinds of moments.
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