You Are What You Eat!
How food connects us to one another
by Ketan Alder
Suitable for Whole School (Sec)
Aims
To explore food production and how we can care about the world.
Preparation and materials
- None required.
Assembly
- According to a popular saying, ‘You are what you eat,’ yet we rarely take time to think about our food before we eat it.
Ask the students to turn to the person next to them and discuss some of the foods that they like to eat and where they come from.
Pause to allow time for discussion. - Explain that when we eat, we don’t tend to think much about our meal’s significance. However, eating is an act that brings us closer to the world. We’re connected to the microbes in the soil, to bees and worms, and to the air, the sun and the rain. Without them, we would have no food. Through eating, we’re also connected to farms and to the people who produce our food.
- As we consider these connections, we might ask, ‘What are conditions like for the people who harvest the food, who transport it and pack it, who put it on the shelves of the shop, who cook it and who serve it to us?’
Each mouthful of food represents many ways in which we are connected to others. That’s a lot to think about as we eat our lunch today! - However, in considering these connections, we have a problem: few of us know how to grow food, or do so regularly. Most of us see food on a shelf and take it to a checkout, or we buy it using the shop’s click-and-collect service, or it is sent straight to our doorstep. Being separate from the food production process means that we might not know whether the food that we eat is harmful to those who are involved in producing it.
- This means that it’s important to ask ourselves some questions.
- Where does this food come from?
- Is it sustainable?
We may encounter stories of exploitation and degradation: pollution entering waterways, animal cruelty, poor treatment of farm workers or destruction of habitats. It is hard to live healthy, happy lives if we don’t care for the soil, humans and other creatures in our world. - Sometimes, our faith can help us to find some answers. In the Bible, in the Book of Genesis, Chapters 1-2, we find the story of the creation of the world in seven days. This story isn’t just about God as creator; it is also a discussion about what was created and why, and it explains God’s hope that life will multiply. Christians believe that from the beginning, God was happy to see life flourish, and this includes water, air, soil, humans and other animals. They believe that God still delights in creation and all its potential, and wants us to care for one another and take joy in our care-giving relationships. Isn’t this amazing?
- Through eating and caring, each of us is connected to one another like strands in a spider’s web. Through eating, we have an intimate relationship with streams that provide water to crops, with worms that keep soil healthy, with bees and butterflies that pollinate vegetables, with animals and other humans. All of creation is like a garden where we can work together and care for one another. And God wants us to find joy in this.
Time for reflection
So, let’s think back to the start of this assembly. We began by discussing the foods that we like and where they come from.
Before we sit down to eat next time, maybe we could reflect on how we can help our world to flourish – the type of care that is needed to nurture life.
Let’s pause for a moment to consider this question: what strengths do we have that might help us to nurture and celebrate the gifts of creation?
Pause to allow time for thought.
Prayer
Dear God,
You are present in the whole universe and in the smallest of your creatures.
You embrace with your tenderness all that exists.
Please pour out upon us the power of your love,
That we may protect life and beauty.
Please help us to take steps to make the world a fairer place.
Please help us to seek to understand our connectivity with others.
Amen.
