Meal Six - 100 Mile Meal Spotlight on United States •To find statistics for your community, or a community within approximately 100 miles of you, visitwww.quickfacts.census.gov . 100 Mile Meal Locally raised and produced food is good for the environment, local economies and your health. The less distance each ingredient travels to get to your plate, the less resources you consume! A study in Iowa found that a regional diet consumed 17 times less oil and gas than a typical diet based on food shipped across the country. Local eating can reconnect you with your food, your local farmers, the seasons and the landscape you live in. Create this meal using only ingredients that come from within a one hundred-mile radius of your town. Printable Table Tent Print the table tent, designed for the 100 mile meal. This table tent includes conversation starters and information about your gifts to ELCA World Hunger in action. Placemats Print and use different placemats during your Lenten meals to raise awareness about hunger, poverty and related issues. Available in a separate PDF. Program This 30-minute program, specifically designed for the United States meal, contains a reading, litany, monologue, prayers and discussion questions. Table Prayer Good and gracious God, in the busyness of our days help us to not turn away from our neighbors in need. Grant us courage to stand with them, let our voice join with theirs, and let our actions reflect the example we have in your Son, Jesus, in whose name we pray. Amen. Stories Visit www.elca.org/hunger/stories and www.elca.org/domestichunger to find stories and information about ELCA World Hunger at work in your town, state or synod. Share these stories with those who attend your meal. ELCA World Hunger Lenten Resources Lent is a time of prayer, service, and self- examination. During this time, many of us choose to live simpler lives, remembering those who do not have the food, money, or resources to simply live. Here are some resources to help your congregation remember those who are hungry and living in poverty this Lenten season. Lenten Meal Series Does your congregation host meals before Lenten services? Why not join together for a meal and help fight hunger at the same time? Enjoy global cuisine while learning about the world and how gifts to ELCA World Hunger are making a difference. Instead of charging for the meal, collect donations to support ELCA World Hunger. Complete plans for six meals are available on the following topics: Bolivia, Cambodia, Columbia, Costa Rica, Egypt, and South America.
Transcript
Meal Six - 100 Mile MealSpotlight on United States•To find statistics for your community, or a community within approximately 100 miles of you, visitwww.quickfacts.census.gov.
100 Mile MealLocally raised and produced food is good for the environment, local economies and your health. The less distance each ingredient travels to get to your plate, the less resources you consume! A study in Iowa found that a regional diet consumed 17 times less oil and gas than a typical diet based on food shipped across the country. Local eating can reconnect you with your food, your local farmers, the seasons and the landscape you live in. Create this meal using only ingredients that come from within a one hundred-mile radius of your town.
Printable Table TentPrint the table tent, designed for the 100 mile meal. This table tent includes conversation starters and information about your gifts to ELCA World Hunger in action.
PlacematsPrint and use different placemats during your Lenten meals to raise awareness about hunger, poverty and related issues. Available in a separate PDF.
ProgramThis 30-minute program, specifically designed for the United States meal, contains a reading, litany, monologue, prayers and discussion questions.
Table PrayerGood and gracious God, in the busyness of our days help us to not turn away from our neighbors in need. Grant us courage to stand with them, let our voice join with theirs, and let our actions reflect the example we have in your Son, Jesus, in whose name we pray. Amen.
StoriesVisit www.elca.org/hunger/stories and www.elca.org/domestichunger to find stories and information about ELCA World Hunger at work in your town, state or synod. Share these stories with those who attend your meal.
ELCA World HungerLenten ResourcesLent is a time of prayer, service, and self-examination. During this time, many of us choose to live simpler lives, remembering those who do not have the food, money, or resources to simply live. Here are some resources to help your congregation remember those who are hungry and living in poverty this Lenten season.
Lenten Meal SeriesDoes your congregation host meals before Lenten services? Why not join together for a meal and help fight hunger at the same time? Enjoy global cuisine while learning about the world and how gifts to ELCA World Hunger are making a difference. Instead of charging for the meal, collect donations to support ELCA World Hunger. Complete plans for six meals are available on the following topics: Bolivia, Cambodia, Columbia, Costa Rica, Egypt, and South America.
Local RecipesFor this meal, recipes will vary by location and will take research ahead of time. The only rule for this meal is that all of the ingredients must come from within a 100 mile radius of your town. For help, check out www.100milediet.org and www.localharvest.org.
PRAYER:Create in us a clean heart, O God. And renew a right spirit within us. Amen.
READING:Isaiah 58:11 (NRSV)The LORD will guide you continually, and satisfy your needs in parched places, and make your bones strong;and you shall be like a watered garden, like a spring of water, whose waters never fail.
MONOLOGUE: Lenny/Linda the gardener(Materials needed: One to two items of locally grown food or display some of the items used in the evening meal on a small table. Visit your local grocery store and ask if they buy from local dealers. Bring that produce to the meal. Dress in gardening clothes and carry a couple of tomato cages. )
OK — Who’s your farmer? Really. Who grows your food? I don’t want to get in the way of anybody’s Big Mac here, but let’s talk! Do you ever stop to think about what’s on your plate, and how it got here? Your Chilean grapes came from … you bet Chili! Amazing right?
We know there’s a hole in the ozone. No, I’m not blaming the Chilean grapes but it wouldn’t hurt to think about some food resources closer to home. Maybe even grown in your town or in your own yard. (rattle the tomato cages)
The less distance each ingredient travels to get to your plate the less resources you consume! A study in Iowa — and Iowa’s all about farming — found that a regional diet consumed 17 times less oil and gas than a typical diet based on food shipped across the country But that’s not all ...
Eating locally grown food can reconnect you with your food, your local farmers, the seasons and the landscape you live in. (add in some of the produce used in the meal or sold in the grocery store here) This ____ came from ____. And, _____? Well, that came from _____. Did you know that (name of store) ______ buys ____(name an item) from _______ (name of farmer or town). What’s not to love about that? (pick up an item) Nobody is going to suffer too much from eating what’s already here. Eating locally grown food might just help us get some dirt under our fingernails. You know, get back to the gift. What we eat and where it comes from. You know, (pause) it matters!
calling
Chicago, IL 60694-1764.
SPOTLIGHT ON THE
United States
continued on back...
How’d I get so smart about food? Just ask ELCA World Hunger. They’ll tell you all about it. Check out their website. Bring your wheelbarrow!
LITANY:Leader: Jeremiah 29:5Congregation: Build houses and live in them; plant gardens and eat what they produce.Leader: Isn’t this gardening thing just a fad? You know chickens in the city kind of thing?Congregation: I don’t know. It says plant gardens.Leader: So now I have to grow my own food?Congregation: No, just be mindful of it. Look around. See what’s being grown in your town. Shop locally first. Leader: You mean get to know my neighbor?Congregation: I mean get to know your farmer. Leader: Build community. I can do that.Congregation: We can do that.Leader: And, it wouldn’t hurt to stick a tomato plant in the ground somewhere.
PRAYER: Free me, O Lord, from food with hidden costs. Give me my fair portion. Encourage me to be thankful. Let your grace be sufficient as I sort it out. Amen.
DISCUSSION QUESTIONS
1. What would a regional diet look like? What would it taste like?
2. Make a commitment to buy locally for one month. While the impact on the environment may not be significant, what would be the impact on you or your family? Would it be worth it?
3. Discuss the benefits of choosing foods that are grown regionally. How would you benefit? What would you gain?
4. How can you connect what’s on your plate with the gospel? Is there a connection?
5. Find out more about food and faith on the ELCA World Hunger website.
