Ben Hicks

The information presented here is excerpted from the above book. Marion Nestle is Paulette Goddard Professor in the Department of Nutrition, Food Studies, and Public Health at New York University and author of several food related books

1. Food is an enormous business that generates well over $1 trillion in annual sales in the United States alone. Food must be produced, processed, distributed, and prepared before it is eaten, each of these steps conducted by companies with special interests in what the government and nutritionists say about food choice

The food industry is vast. It encompasses everyone who owns or works in agriculture (animal and plant), product manufacture, restaurants, institutional food service, retail stores, and factories that make farm machines and fertilizers, as well as people engaged in the transportation, storage, and insurance businesses that support such enterprises

2. Problem is not production but distribution

Read more

From Ft. Worth City Magazine

"Fort Worth has an unusual new entrant in the food truck scene: Arlington Heights United Methodist Church.

"The West Side church on Sunday officially launched Five & Two – a take on Jesus’ feeding of the multitude with five loaves and two fishes – in a refurbished 1996 Chevy plumbing truck.

"’It’s a full commercial kitchen on wheels,’ Allen Lutes, associate pastor and director of the church’s new food truck ministry, said after a dedication ceremony with hot dogs and chips.

"The church sees the food truck as a way to take its ministry to people, rather than rely on them to come to the church. “How much more meaningful if we meet them where they are?” Lutes said during a Sunday sermon.

"Beginning June 18, and on the third Thursday of each month, Five & Two will begin serving dinner to the 30 homeless veterans who live at the Presbyterian Night Shelter’s Patriot House off of East Lancaster Avenue.

"In July, the truck will be at the Night Shelter’s women and children’s unit once a month. ‘This is going to be an opportunity to do more,’ to serve as mentors and work with children, Lutes said."

Those of you who are scientific minded probably get tired reading all these words. What about numbers ? Quick now, using Einstein’s mass/energy conversion equation how much energy did Jesus have to muster to feed the 5,000 ?

Christian Gaffney answers that for you

Feeding the 5,000 is a program, part of the European organization FeedBack that is tackling hunger in a specific way – using food that would normally be wasted. They work to glean crops from farms that would be wasted also but host public events to bring awareness to this issue. They explain it this way "At each event, we serve up a delicious communal feast for 5000 people made entirely out of food that would otherwise have been wasted, bringing together a coalition of organizations that offer the solutions to food waste, raising the issue up the political agenda and inspiring new local initiatives against food waste."

An example is an event that took place in Vancouver, Canada on May 27, 2015.

It was grassroots “lunch and learn” on a grand scale. Everything on the menu came from industry donors. Those attending got a tasty free 3 course lunch, an appreciation of food waste in the region, connections with those already taking action to reduce waste, as well as ideas for reducing food waste in their own lives. Here is a video.

Summary – French War refugee Babette works for 2 sisters & their ascetic sect. When she cooks a feast they reluctantly eat but soon the grace of the meal transforms all, including a former suitor of one of the sisters. 

Babette’s Feast is a high regarded Danish Academy Award winning movie from 1987.

The setting of the film is a barren, windswept coastal village of Denmark in the 19th century. The village is populated by a very conservative and pious community of Protestant believers. It is led by two elderly sisters who struggle to maintain the faithfulness and the spirit of the community, which is aging and growing quarrelsome. When Babette, a political refugee from Paris, turns up in their village, the sisters charitably take her in and make her their housekeeper. They ask Babette to cook their very simple fare, for extravagance of any kind is suspect, and enjoyment of worldly pleasures (including lavish eating and drinking) is sinful. 

Read more

“Whatever it is that we wrestle with, whatever is our struggle, God will strengthen us. God will bless us. God will allow us to prevail. And, having prevailed, we will be changed.” – Br. James Koester, SSJE