Most of us eat 3 times a day. However, some people are so busy that they do not even consider it. They simply find something really fast and proceed through their day. But food is much more than something we consume. Food brings people together and here are some of the numerous ways it does so.
1) Eating Dinner Round the Table:
At the end of the day everyone is tired and needs to draw for their own rooms. Families should promote eating dinner around the table or even every night, at least once weekly. Gathering around the table with meals promotes group communication. Mother can ask how you did on your math test while she moves you the mashed potatoes. Jack can ask Jill if her boss was mean now as he had been yesterday. Getting together for dinner gives a solid thirty minutes of family involvement every day. Moreover, you can recruit the entire family to prepare dinner. This provides a bonding experience together with life skills for the younger family members.
2) Food Crosses Cultural Boundaries:
You may always hear people say that the best way to get to know someone is by eating their meals. They do not just mean consume Sarah’s biscuits and decide she’s a great person. Sometimes it is not the simplest thing for somebody who has lived in the US their lives to understand somebody that has moved out of India. Food is a way to present yourself and a way to get to know them. Someone can cook you their favourite dish and it is like you understand them all of a sudden. This applies also to travel. Say you are walking down the streets of Verona, holding your map (probably upside down) and trying to work out how to ask someone for support. You are suddenly drawn to the smells coming from the little bakery to your right. Walking in feels like home to you in that strange area.
3) Expressing Emotion:
People show their love in various ways. Food always works! Parents pack lunches for their kids. They cut your PB&J in triangles and remember to remove the crust and may even slip a little note in there also. Even if you’re grown you can tell your mother you had a bad day and she may call you over for wine and cake! It’s the exact same thought process when folks make soup for a sick friend. It may not necessarily accelerate their recovery but it nourishes them and shows you care- you took time from your day. Traditionally when somebody is homebound/recovering from a surgery/a relative passes/etc. People today bring them food. Baking that plate of lasagna may take you an hour to them it is a relief after a long day in the hospital that they don’t need to cook.
4) The Holidays:
Holidays like Thanksgiving and Christmas have a meaning, but occasions attach to them. Anytime someone believes about Thanksgiving they think of turkey! Your uncle spends frying it out in the garage with every other man in your family sitting around it. All of your aunts spend the day preparing all their designated side dishes. On Christmas Eve and Day, you can almost bet someone in the house is cooking. Some may be cookie tins being packaged as gifts and somebody may have a ham in the oven. At the close of the afternoon on this 4th Thursday in November and December 25th, the entire family is sitting around the spread featuring everybody’s hard work and love.
Hopefully you’ve all been aware of a few of the ways food plays a part in our own lives. Otherwise, I hope now you will look at things differently when your neighbor brings that casserole over!
