The “On Call” blog for the Fund for Theological Education features an item on the Episcopal Foodie Network, a Facebook group dedicated to – well, if anything’s unclear, re-read the name.
Our “Theo-Epicurean” social experiment began with a few simple acts. My brother Simon created a Facebook group page. We took a picture of the homemade chicken pot pie we had just made, used it for the masthead, and uploaded all our food related photos from our cell phones. Voila! The Episcopal Foodie Network was born. Within days over 500 foodies of faith had joined and were posting like mad….
A faithful foodie from Afghanistan, Britt Farbo, uploaded photos of a meal shared on a large colorful blanket around a fire and invited us for a dinner of beans, rice, and Naan.
Another foodie wrote, “Please come to Delaware in the summer: crab cakes, white corn, beefsteak tomatoes, fresh coleslaw, & homemade sweet tea.”
Kansas City wants to take us to their favorite barbecue joint. Erlinda Bevins in San Antonio, Texas wants to take us to The Cove, “a funky laundromat/car wash/bar & grill with delicious Portobello mushroom burgers and fish tacos. The immediate community formed among total strangers was strangely moving.
It didn’t stop there. The Justice Foodies weighed in and linked us to Slow Food USA “working to change the food system through a network of volunteer chapters all over the country.” We learned about church-sponsored free farmers markets for neighbors with food insecurities. ONE Campaign supporters linked us to articles like “The Minimalist Takes Action on World Hunger.” We saw the Japanese Tsunami through the lens of food rationing.