We all eat; usually 3 times a day (sometimes more). But some people are so busy that they don’t even think about it. They just find something really quick and go about their day. But food is much more than something we eat. Food brings people together and these are some of the many ways it does so.
1) Dining around the table: At the end of the day everyone is tired and wants to retire to their own rooms. Families should encourage dining around the table, if not every night, then at least once a week. Gathering around the table with food encourages group communication. Mom can ask you how she did on your math test as she hands you the mashed potatoes. Jack can ask Jill if her boss was as bad today as she was yesterday. Getting together for dinner provides a solid 30 minutes of family engagement every day. Plus, you can enlist the whole family to cook dinner. This provides a bonding experience along with life skills for the youngest members of the family.
2) Food crosses cultural boundaries: You’ll always hear people say that the best way to get to know someone is by eating their food. They don’t just mean eating Sarah’s cookies and deciding that she’s a good person. Sometimes it is not easy for someone who has lived in the US all her life to understand someone who has moved from India. Food is a way to introduce yourself and a way to get to know them. Someone can cook you their favorite dish and it’s like you suddenly know them better. This additionally applies to travel. Let’s say you’re walking the streets of Verona, holding your map (probably upside down), and trying to figure out how to ask someone for help. Suddenly you are drawn to the smells coming from the little bakery on your right. Walking in feels like home in that weird neighborhood.
3) Express Emotion: People show their love in different ways. Food always works! Parents prepare lunches for their children. They cut their PB&J into triangles and remember to remove the crust and can even put a little note on there too. Even when you’re older, you can tell your mom you had a bad day and she might call you for cake and wine! It’s the same thought process when people make soup for a sick friend. It may not necessarily speed up their recovery, but it nurtures them and shows that you care: you took time out of your day. Traditionally when someone is homebound/recovering from surgery/family member passes away/etc. people bring them food. Baking that bowl of lasagna might take an hour, but it’s a relief to them after a long day in the hospital that they don’t have to cook.
4) Holidays: Holidays like Thanksgiving and Christmas have meaning, but events accompany them. Every time someone thinks of Thanksgiving, they think of turkey! Your uncle spends all day frying it in the garage with all the other men in your family sitting around. All your aunts spend the day preparing all the designated side dishes. On Christmas Eve and the day, it can almost be that someone in the house is cooking. Some may be cookie tins packaged as gifts and someone may have a ham in the oven. At the end of the day, on the fourth Thursday of November and December 25, the whole family is sitting around the performance that shows everyone’s hard work and love.
Hopefully everyone has already been aware of some of the ways that food plays an important role in our lives. If not, I hope you now see things differently when your neighbor brings that saucepan over!
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