by Ruth Broyde Sharone

In the adage “If there is no bread, there is no Torah,” Judaism recognizes that one needs to feed the body before you can feed the soul, because deep learning cannot occur on an empty stomach. The Jewish tradition also recognizes the power of food to enhance the body’s availability to be spiritually nourished.

by Vicki Garlock

Potlucks. Catered events. Happy hours. Home-cooked family dinners. Farm-to-table menus. Carry-out eateries. Fine dining establishments. Many of us enjoy a cornucopia of food options on a regular basis. We can also testify to the social nature of eating with others. I am reminded of a conversation with a friend when discussing her first silent Zen retreat. “It’s was really amazing, but I found mealtimes difficult.

from the Center of Christian-Muslim Relations of Sydney

“Similar to fasting and abstinence, communal meals play an important seasonal role in the life of the Melkite, that is Greek-Catholic, Church. As a practicing Melkite, my church community often celebrates together with meals on the church grounds, particularly on feast days ... 

by Janet McGarry

The Interfaith Sustainable Food Collaborative (ISFC) is a nonprofit organization working in California’s Sonoma and Marin Counties. It gathers clergy and lay-people for monthly roundtable discussions about food and faith. In June 2014, members of Lutheran, Quaker, Congregational, Methodist, Seventh Day Adventist, Episcopal, and Catholic congregations met at the First United Methodist Church in Santa Rosa, California to learn how their congregations could buy food directly from farmers...

from the Inter-Faith Food Shuttle

(Raleigh, N.C.) After more than 27 years as a trailblazer in hunger relief and food system change, Jill Staton Bullard is leaving the organization she co-founded in 1989.  Bullard, co-founder and Emeritus CEO of Inter-Faith Food Shuttle, announced in a June 16th all-staff meeting that it was time to retire from day-to-day work at IFFS...

by Paul Chaffee

For those who would love to find some middle ground between the strictures of a vegetarian or vegan diet, on one hand, and the sometime travesties of big agriculture, GMOs (genetically modified organisms), packaged food, and fast food, on the other, the slow food movement may be a satisfying alternative in reflecting on and choosing what you eat and how you eat. 

by Charles P. Gibbs

It seems unlikely that someone who co-founded Tulsa Beef and Feed, a motorcycle “gang,” would become a vegetarian. And, yet, I did; and I did. Here’s the story of an unlikely vegetarian. I was born and raised in the great southwest of the United States – born in New Mexico, the Land of Enchantment; and mostly raised in Oklahoma, the Sooner State, puzzlingly named after...

a TIO Report

Religions East and West, conservative and progressive, ancient and new, almost always express their concern for the disinherited, particularly for the hungry. As an ancient Hebrew proverb says, “Whoever gives to the poor will not want, but he who hides his eyes will get many a curse.” (Proverbs 28:27) Yet despite the injunction and an abundance of food grown on Earth each year, the hunger statistics today are staggering.