We hope you enjoy this guest article by Rev. Bonnie Fackre-Cochise of Christ the Healer UCC about our second pop up event on Oct. 5.It’s a mission! It’s a movement! It’s a meal!
Climate Café has had its second successful “pop-up” event sponsored by Christ the Healer, UCC — this time at St. Luke ELCA in SW Portland. Seventy-eight folks from at least seven different churches and communities sat down to a plant-based chili dinner, to explore what it would be like if everyone would eat and share low-carbon-footprint meals.
The chili topped a wild rice offering with a hefty garden salad to the side. All the food was lovingly grown, prepared, and served by volunteer diners and donors.
But wait – before we ate, we had in front of us a small plate with three delicious, nutritious plant offerings: an edible flower, an edible weed, and a home-grown grape from Grace Garden. Chef Gabrielle then led us in a mindful eating exercise that primed us to see, smell and taste the bounty of nature’s gift.
Chef Gabrielle demonstrated how to make a delicious tofu sour cream – which was served as part of the meal, and included on a handout with all of the other recipes from the evening. Children were invited to share their art in a postcard contest, on which climate change messages would be collected and sent to Congress. And the table exercise was to write a letter to the future, explaining – perhaps apologizing for – the natural environment our children and grandchildren will inherit.
Yet, there’s hope. What if this kind of non-industrial eating became a habit? We can choose manageable, everyday solutions to our current climate crisis – fresh and healthy local produce, prepared with minimum energy use. In other words, don’t underestimate the impact of our diets. Simple changes to the way we eat go a long way towards addressing climate change. And friends, this food is TASTY!
Our next pop up event takes place at noon on Sunday, Oct. 30. It will be at the site of our first pop up: Hillsdale, UCC, 6948 SW Capitol Highway, Portland, Oregon 97219. We’ll be featuring foods indigenous to our area of the Pacific Northwest, and hearing from a very special guests: author-professor-farmer Randy Woodley and his wife Edith. They will share their regenerative farming practices and their Creation Justice Ministry from an Indigenous Wisdom perspective. The food will be great, too.
Come join us! For the love of all Creation!