Get Involved|February: Food is Love
“The people who give you their food, give you their heart.”
– Cesario (Cesar) Estrada Chavez, a farm labor leader and civil rights activist
This story is part of The Meaning of Food, Northwest Harvest’s yearlong exploration of food’s meaning in our lives and communities.
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“We always have enough food for an extra guest or two,” my mother (let’s call her “C”) said, putting out an extra plate for a friend who unexpectedly stopped by around dinner time. It had been like that my entire childhood; she always had a strong ethos of love and generosity in the kitchen. “No one goes hungry in this house,” she has said countless times, hands on her hips, apron on, numerous pots and pans simmering away in the background.
My parents are from the Midwest – the land of casseroles and bacon grease. Their childhood Sundays were characterized by the mouthwatering smell of slow roasted pork roast. Fruit salads, wilted spinach salads, and German potato salad were at every community potluck.
My mom shows care and love through the preparing and sharing of food. She makes the same foods for the same celebrations: each year, for my other mom’s (let’s call her “K”) birthday, she whips up a favorite from their youth: mock duck (an interesting experience, if you’re unfamiliar with the concept). Each year, on Mother’s Day (a big day in a household run by lesbians), my mom prepares eggs benedict with a homemade hollandaise sauce. K makes a killer cinnamon sticky bun from scratch.
My parents started stocking and cooking meat substitutes when I became a vegetarian, even though they themselves still consume meat. They always pack Tupperware containers full of leftovers to send home with guests. When I was recovering from surgery, my parents prepared two massive frozen trays of vegetarian lasagna and dropped them off with a few bags of staples that would be easy to make while on the mend.
For as long as I can remember, C would hold court in the kitchen. She was always cooking, and we were always standing nearby, sharing the latest in our lives and the world. The beating heart of our home has always been the kitchen. Love has always been folded into the food in my family, snuck into every recipe, the subtle flavor that really warms the belly and the heart.
Making soup for a sick friend, cooking for gatherings, tucking love notes into lunchboxes.
Finding favorite restaurants together, cooking spontaneous meals at home, packing special snacks for a traveling partner.
Stocking Little Free Pantries, supporting food banks, sharing garden harvests, making inclusive food choices for gatherings.
Foraging responsibly, saving heritage seeds, knowing your local farmers, supporting farm workers’ rights, making climate-conscious food choices.
Enjoying favorite meals, showing compassion when appetite struggles, eating colorfully and seasonally, growing herbs on your windowsill.
“Despite high rates of diet related disease, 80-90% of a person’s health can be attributed to nonmedical factors, often referred to as social determinants of health, which include, but are not limited to, food security, housing, transportation, education and employment. — National Academy of Medicine
“Indigenous peoples knew that everything was connected and that everything was alive. The Elders say ‘even the rocks’ are alive and require the same respect as everything else. A circle describes the Indigenous way of thinking. There is no one place in the circle that is dominant because everything on Mother Earth is equal. When you love someone or something, you do everything you can to protect them. You fight for them. You nurture them. You interact with them. Love is a set of emotions and behaviours characterized by intimacy, passion, and commitment. It involves care, closeness, protectiveness, attraction, affection, and trust. All of this the Indigenous people felt for their lands, waters and everything in them.”
“Walking in mindfulness I can express my love, respect, and care for you, our precious Earth. I will touch the truth that mind and body are not two separate entities. I will train myself to look deeply to see your true nature: you are my loving mother, a living being, a great being—an immense, beautiful, and precious wonder. You are not only matter, you are also mind, you are also consciousness. Just as the beautiful pine or tender grain of corn possess an innate sense of knowing, so, too, do you. Within you, dear Mother Earth, there are the elements of Earth, water, air and fire; and there is also time, space, and consciousness. Our nature is your nature, which is also the nature of the cosmos.”
Soup is Love is a mutual aid effort in the Seattle area that prepares and distributes homemade soups to provide hot meals and care to any neighbors in need. Check them out on Instagram: @soupisloveseattle
The Community Food Bank of Dayton, in Columbia County, practices care for shoppers: “It is very important to recognize our clients and call them by name. One of our clients was so excited that I remembered her name and has made a huge effort to remember my name. Sometimes we may be the only person our clients had contact with that day.” The Community Food Bank of Dayton uses a shopping-style model, like the model in place at SODO Community Market and Fruitvale Community Market, that promotes dignity and choice. If you are moved to support their work, please visit their website.
The Ocean Shores Food Bank in Grays Harbor knows the social and emotional value of their work in community: “A guest recently told one of our volunteers that she’d loved coming to the food bank. It is her social time and she looks forward to coming every week. Not only do we provide food for our guests, we provide a place for guests to see their friends and make new ones.” The Ocean Shores Food Bank was featured in a Northwest Harvest blog post last year, celebrating their “neighbors helping neighbors” approach to their work. If you are moved to support their work, please visit their website.
The Tonasket Food Bank in Okanogan County is a staple in the community and helps shoppers take care of themselves and their neighbors: “More and more our clients who live way up in the hills are checking with their neighbors and picking up their food if they need help. It’s not uncommon now to have drivers picking up for 6 to 10 of their neighbors. I think there is a lot of cooperation happening around our community.” If you are moved to support their work, please visit their website.
The Gifts from the Heart Food Bank on Whidbey Island have seen firsthand how their services make their guests feel loved and connected: a regular visitor to the food bank started receiving military benefits after her husband passed away. Those payments will help her maintain a more stable financial position. The food bank shared: “She wanted to thank us for our services, to say that she considered all of our volunteers her friends, and she wanted to give us a donation so we can continue to provide services for other families who need them! She gave us a sizeable donation and asked if she could stop in sometimes just to say hi to us. Of course she can!” If you feel moved to support their work, please visit their website.
Food can be a conduit for love. Making and sharing food with our loved ones is a powerful way to show care. Love can be cooked or baked into our favorite meals and build warmth and community.
Ready to share your food love story?
Follow along at @NWHarvest on Instagram and Facebook, and join the conversation using #MeaningOfFood. Together, we’re weaving a deeper understanding of food’s role in creating a more equitable future.
