For a study guide, see page 26.
W
hen Venice Williams saw the woman walking down the street with three children in tow, she had one thought: Get the strawberries.
Lutherans fill hearts, tables, gardens— even backpacks
By Anne Ford
For months the director of Alice’s Garden had been trying to coax the young mother and her family into the 2-acre community fruit and vegetable garden in Milwaukee. But now it was strawberry season. Williams felt sure their sweet taste could succeed where all her talking had failed. She offered some to the kids and their mom. After they’d eagerly eaten the fruit and asked for more, “I said, ‘Well, come on in, we grow those here,’ ” recalled Williams, who attends All People’s [Lutheran] Church, Milwaukee. “They entered the garden that day, and their lives have never been the same since.” Williams quickly learned that the mother was in an emotionally abusive relationship and needed friendship and community. The garden and its programs, such as family cooking classes and guided walks through a labyrinth funded by Lake Park Lutheran Church in 2011, provided both. The mother began to open up more, and finally the day came when she pointed to the labyrinth and said, “This healed me.” Williams said, “She is one of the strongest examples of how having this space helps people find God. It’s about tending the land, but it’s also about tending to those deep places on your spiritual journey. The garden and the labyrinth made no sense to her in the beginning. But the seeds had been planted.” That’s just one way Lutherans nationwide use food—even some- thing as small as a strawberry—as a means of living their faith. As the most universal of needs, food can connect us to each other
and to God in primal, pleasurable and deeply fulfilling ways. Whether the goal is to feed the hungry, build a community, encourage environmen- tal stewardship or do all three at once, food-based programs nourish minds and spirits as well as bodies.
Feeding the hungry
Jim Sandt has long known where he belongs: outside, working the land. “For some reason, the good Lord blessed me with the knowledge that I wanted to be a farmer, and I knew that from the time I was about 10,” he said.
After several decades of managing a 2,000-acre commercial fruit opera- tion, then running his own farm and orchard, the third-generation farmer thought he knew just about every- thing there was about agriculture. Then his pastor at St. Peter Evangeli- cal Lutheran Church in Pen Argyl, Pa., urged him to attend a conference hosted by ELCA World Hunger. “He says, ‘I think they need you down there,’ ” Sandt said. “[I responded]: ‘I don’t think they need me .... There’s gonna be a bunch of suburban people not knowing how to grow one thing, and I’m not sure how much food that’s gonna put in the mouths of hungry people.’ “Well, let me tell you, my attitude
changed. Those people knew where it’s at. When I left that conference, I left with the idea in my head that there was going to be a community garden one way or the other.” As it happened, St. Peter has a siz- able amount of farmable land. Sandt quickly enlisted the congregation’s help to not only turn the land into a
Ford is a freelance writer living in Chicago. June 2013 21
PHOTO COURTESY OF OUTPOST NATURAL FOODS/PAUL SLOTH
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