To the Table - Paperback

by Lisa Graham McMinn (Preface by)

With the growing farm-to-table movement and popularity of local farmers' markets, we are becoming more conscious of where our food originates. This spirituality of eating and food helps us reflect on current realities and understand how eating forms our souls inwardly, upwardly, and outwardly. The author offers practical guidance on what it means to eat alone or in community with more intention, compassion, humility, and gratitude. She also tells the story of food as it transitions from seed to table. Sidebars contain gardening and food tips, recipes, and food preservation guides. End-of-chapter questions for individual and group use are included.

Back Jacket

Eating with More Intention, Compassion, and Gratitude

"To the Table is a warm and wise invitation to practice eating as a spiritual discipline--not as an act of self-improvement but as a way of living out and delighting in the generous, abundant, just, sweet, and savory love of God."
--Rachel Marie Stone, author of Eat with Joy: Redeeming God's Gift of Food

"To the Table takes us on a practical and personal journey into the joys and trials of growing, cooking, preserving, and sharing food. Here we see that food is not reducible to a commodity but is instead the tasty medium of God's love for the whole creation. With inspiring and illuminating stories and astute cultural analysis, McMinn shows us how the whole of eating can be a sacramental act that brings healing to our hungry and hurting world. This beautifully written book is ideal for group study, and its recipes and cooking advice will encourage people to gather in kitchens and around tables to share in the grace of God."
--Norman Wirzba, Duke Divinity School; author of Food and Faith: A Theology of Eating

"To the Table is about dining devotionally, which feeds both body and soul. A deeply nourishing read."
--Joel Salatin, Polyface Farm

"If this book were a table, it would bow under the weight of its abundance. Filled with research, recipes, how-to tips, and personal narrative, To the Table will encourage faithful readers to head straight for their own gardens, farmers markets, pantries, and tables as they learn to eat more intentionally, more prayerfully, and with stronger community ties. With insights from sociology and wisdom from lived experience in family, church, and community, Lisa McMinn is an expert guide for those wishing to eat better, live better, and follow Christ more deeply."
--Jenell Paris, Messiah College

Author Biography

Lisa Graham McMinn (PhD, Portland State University) is co-owner of Fern Creek, a thirty-family CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) farm outside of Newberg, Oregon. She is writer in residence at George Fox University, where she previously taught sociology, and is the author of several books, including Growing Strong Daughters and Walking Gently on the Earth.