Come and Get It
The shared meal elevates eating from a mechanical process of fueling the body to a ritual of family and community, from mere animal biology to an act of culture.
–Michael Pollan, In Defense of Food: An Eater’s Manifesto
There is something remarkable that happens when people eat together. While we share our thoughts, feelings, and waffle fries, we connect. We become known to one another in a more intimate and familiar way. The fancy term for this is building social capital.
It happens by degrees, running the gamut from a quick lunch in the corporate cafeteria to working shoulder to shoulder in grandmother’s kitchen at Thanksgiving. (The kitchen in every home is a treasure chest–the source of life and liveliness. It is where we all end up at a party.)
According to the Recreational Wellness Center at Vanderbilt University, the physical benefits to sharing a meal include reinforcing mindful eating habits, reducing our fast food intake, and helping us establish a support system. We are actually physically better for having taken the time to eat with other people.
Of course, preparing a meal with others is tantamount to a team building activity. It’s exhilarating and frustrating by turns. You move through problem solving, building trust, joint ownership for a result, and finally, celebrating a job well done. All the while, talking about anything and everything. Connecting.
Often laughter accompanies people sharing food. Another physical and emotional win-win, laughter reduces stress in the body and elevates our mood emotionally. Laughter is the soundtrack of our most cherished dinner parties…whether there are two chairs or ten.
At its most rich, the time we spend eating together is time we intentionally set aside to honor one another’s presence. In doing so, we nourish one another…in body, mind, and spirit.
