Food for thought
Both Simo and Sarah have posted recently on Jamie Oliver's programme about school dinners, and there has been much chewing over of how Jamie has a good point, what we eat is really important - yet how often at youth events do we feed our own young people pizza, donuts and a whole host of other high fat/ sugar foods that can't really be thought of as very balanced!
And this got me to thinking, well, why not include a healthier approach to food? One of the things that Jamie did that worked was getting the young people to cook their own food.
Now here's the thing you see, I can cook, and as someone once said to me 'you are the best resource you'll ever have for youthwork,' it would make sense to use the skills I DO have with the youth - so why not cooking too?
After all, many of the young people I'm working with now will be leaving home in two or three years, and it makes good youthworkerish sense to give them life skills too!
Then add into this the fact that one of the hallmarks of a healthy community is that they eat together - at youth groups we often snack together - but maybe we could grow and deepen some of our relationships by growing the quality of time we spend eating, and even cooking together? Many of my enduring friendships have had a strong element of food in them. (I'm not referring to my relationship with either chocolate or coffee, btw!)
Of course, can't miss out the spiritual bit - so how about using the time as an opportunity to look at the passage where Paul talks about spiritual milk vs more chewy spiritual stuff (translation according to me!) and getting them to think about what their spiritual life is, and where they get their fuel from - and maybe getting into growth.
Alternatively, I'm sure bits of the film 'Supersize me' could be used to reflect on how what we put into our bodies affects us - and lead this into a discussion about how what we put into ourselves affects who we are and who we become. It could lead to some useful reflection on discernment; how far is what we put into our bodies and our minds useful, or not?
Conveniently, I'm meant to be hosting /providing a meal for a group of young people on Sunday. I think the menu may just have changed!
And this got me to thinking, well, why not include a healthier approach to food? One of the things that Jamie did that worked was getting the young people to cook their own food.
Now here's the thing you see, I can cook, and as someone once said to me 'you are the best resource you'll ever have for youthwork,' it would make sense to use the skills I DO have with the youth - so why not cooking too?
After all, many of the young people I'm working with now will be leaving home in two or three years, and it makes good youthworkerish sense to give them life skills too!
Then add into this the fact that one of the hallmarks of a healthy community is that they eat together - at youth groups we often snack together - but maybe we could grow and deepen some of our relationships by growing the quality of time we spend eating, and even cooking together? Many of my enduring friendships have had a strong element of food in them. (I'm not referring to my relationship with either chocolate or coffee, btw!)
Of course, can't miss out the spiritual bit - so how about using the time as an opportunity to look at the passage where Paul talks about spiritual milk vs more chewy spiritual stuff (translation according to me!) and getting them to think about what their spiritual life is, and where they get their fuel from - and maybe getting into growth.
Alternatively, I'm sure bits of the film 'Supersize me' could be used to reflect on how what we put into our bodies affects us - and lead this into a discussion about how what we put into ourselves affects who we are and who we become. It could lead to some useful reflection on discernment; how far is what we put into our bodies and our minds useful, or not?
Conveniently, I'm meant to be hosting /providing a meal for a group of young people on Sunday. I think the menu may just have changed!
posted by Kathryn at 4:47 PM
5 Comments:
amen sister! i know of a theologian who has written a book that plots the whole course of God's plan for the world through meals, from the fall to heaven is all around food. i really strongly believe that eating together is one of the most powerful spiritual and bonding things that people can do.
let's eat!
Very Good points, I know with my last youth group some of the most successful socials we did were ‘Ready, Steady, Cook’ evenings, we did them in two formats one was everybody brings £1 you then get them into teams and send them off to the local super market and they have to buy food, each team then went to a different house to cook a meal then all teams came back to share. The other slightly more scary option was everybody brought an ingredient to the value of £1 and we saw what we had a worked from that.
On the other point I have done assemblies on the theme of ‘GIGO’ a computing term for ‘Garbage In Garbage Out’. Make a milk shake (ice-cream, milk and banana (or other fruit) in a blender) then get someone to try it, then add a few other ingredients, the banana skin, Tabasco source, a chilli, an raw egg (this is good to crack in then look around for somewhere to put the shell, the blender ends up as the easiest option) carry on with a few other things mix again and then ask them to try it again and to comment. It always goes down well, in terms of an illustration perhaps not so much as a refreshing drink! Another good element in the school is to try and get the year head to drink it as well!
Sorry this is such a long comment but hope it might be helpful to someone.
i really enjoy reading your blog
its all a conspiracy!
very interesting. kinda makes you think
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