Sharing the Stories Our Foods Tell

“Getting to Know Us: The Stories Our Foods Tell” developed out of a freshman composition class’s study of Nina Thursteneau, an Indian-American writing about her access to Indian foods, family, and culture somewhere along the Missouri-Kansas border. In the class were three Korean young women, with Shin from Cambodia and Jessie from Peru. Naomi was only one generation removed from Eretria & Ethiopia, Paulette two generations from Mexico, Andrea two generations from the Philippines. Other students had cultural connections to Ireland, Lithuania, The Netherlands. They had parents, grandparents, uncles and aunts, and their stories, to write about. Their foods ranged from beer brats and OJ banana bread muffins to kugelis and himbasha, to lumpia and Young Yang Bab, to Ddok-Bok-Gi and mole poblano, to Janchi Guksu and Keating (Irish) potatoes! The foods, family histories, and cultural insights seemed too good to keep in the classroom, especially as they also picture the way we image God together better than we do separately. Read the stories here!