Campaign aims to increase access to healthy foods
in low-income neighborhoods
Sepehr Homayoon shows off a plate of breads he made
at Baha'i Faith Community Center in Nashville.
By Jennifer Justus, The Tennessean, July 26, 2009
Photo credit: Jae S. Lee / The Tennessean
When Pastor Bobby Sanders delivers a sermon at Corona Baptist Church in Mt. Juliet, he serves a feisty helping of the Holy Spirit. Hands reach for the heavens, voices shout and congregation members pump their hand-held fans to stay cool. Advertisement
But even post-benediction, the energy stays up as congregation members file toward the fellowship hall. On homecoming at Corona Baptist, first they feed the soul and then they feed the body — with fried chicken, green beans, spiced apples, deviled eggs and plates of juicy sliced tomatoes.
"I'm telling you, the food? It's milk and honey down there," Sanders told his flock, gesturing to an usher showing visitors downstairs. "He's going to lead you to the Promised Land. He's your Moses."
Food and faith fit together like a casserole and a potluck. Houses of worship, no matter what religion, hold gatherings over food. But more than just fellowship with friends and visitors, food gives faith-based communities an opportunity to reach beyond the church walls — from donating to food banks and taking care of refugees to growing gardens and offering farmers markets.
Recognizing the natural connection, Food Security Partners of Middle Tennessee has been working on a tool kit, which it hopes to roll out this fall, to take the link of food and faith a step further. It wants to help religious communities address food deserts (areas with limited access to healthy food) and work toward a healthy, just food system.
"It's already there," said program coordinator Miriam Leibowitz of the 1,000-plus churches, synagogues and mosques in Nashville, "so it makes sense to tap into what's already happening."
Food-faith connection
Oddie Bryant-Jones, 72, remembers the homecoming celebrations at Corona Baptist when she was a child. Her grandmother would choose the best beans from the garden, along with the freshest tomatoes for slicing and ears of corn to fry for serving to friends, family and visitors. Other members would bring their best produce and dishes as well.
"Everyone remembers aunt so-and-so's this and cousin so-and-so's that," Bryant-Jones said. Advertisement
But food prepared with attention and care isn't limited to Baptists, of course. At the Bahá'i Center of Nashville, Sepehr Homayoon likes to prepare a special quiche for meetings. Studded with red cabbage, onion and cauliflower, he serves it with kefir, a fermented yogurt sauce of his native country, Iran. His quiche, though, might sit alongside a diverse array of foods at the Bahá'i center — African-American dishes or cuisines of Persia, China and Europe, among others.
"Eating brings unity," Homayoon said.
Meanwhile, at Congregation Micah in Brentwood, education director Julie Greenberg is helping children connect through food by taking them back to the source.
In April, Greenberg and the children planted seven raised beds (a sacred number in Judaism) for the religious school garden, Teva Tov, Hebrew for "Good Nature."
"Connecting kids to the land and the foods that they eat has power far beyond the benefits of better nutrition," she wrote in an e-mail.
The gardens will produce potatoes for making latkes for Hanukkah; tomatoes, kale, peppers, cucumbers and herbs will fill the Seder plate. In addition to Jewish cooking classes, the synagogue will offer a session on pickling, an ancient art celebrated as a modern delicacy in Jewish cuisine.
Beyond the gardens, Greenberg, an avid home gardener and wife of local chef Clay Greenberg, formerly of Lime, Virago and Layl'a, said the synagogue holds a "30-Minute Mitzvah Market" during religious schools each Sunday. Families can purchase fresh eggs, milk, breads, honey and cheese from local farmers.
Beyond providing resources for fresh local food and educational opportunities for children, Greenberg believes the gardens and market follow a responsibility to preserve the Earth and care for others.
"We incorporate lessons on decreasing one's carbon footprint, composting, harvesting rain water," she said, "and leaving the corners of our fields for those less fortunate."
The next course
Given the food and faith connection, the Food Security Partners of Middle Tennessee recognized an opportunity to educate and take action.
In March, Leibowitz was hired to lead Re/Storing Nashville, a campaign to increase access to healthy foods in low-income neighborhoods. In addition to developing policy that will bring grocery stores to underserved neighborhoods and improving public transportation, Leibowitz has been meeting with Christian, Jewish and Islamic leaders to create a faith-based initiative across denominations. The project is still in the planning stages, but the group hopes to launch it by Thanksgiving.
"Food is a bringing together, a focal point," she said. "It's a way to create community and build community once it's there."