Food Connects Us to Others!

Meal Challenge

People around the world eat their meals in different ways. Tonight, choose a new way to eat a favourite meal, like eating picnic style on the floor or serving food ‘communal style’ right on the table! (Look up “spaghetti table” for inspiration!)

Fun Food Facts

• Some of our foods come from surprising places! Apples first grew in Kazakhstan, pasta first came from China and donuts were invented in Greece.
• Babies have about 30,000 tastebuds when they are born. By the time we’re adults, we only have 10,000 left—which means kids are super-tasters compared to grown-ups!

Opening Activity

Look at the food on your plate or find a few different foods in your kitchen. Do you know where they came from? When you find out, look up the countries where your food came from on a map to see how far away it came to get to you!

Food isn’t just good for our bodies; it helps build strong families and friendships!

Ask: If you were going to have a birthday party, what foods would be super important to have? Why? What is your favourite holiday food?

Long ago, when Jesus and His friends lived, people ate food together on holidays to remember what God had done for them. Even before that, God gave His people special feasts to help them come together as families. Each feast helped them remember something great about God. Because they were feasts, they included special foods or ways of eating because God knows that food reminds us of special people and places. It’s so much more than just energy for our bodies!

Jesus taught His friends about God while they ate dinner together. Even the very first church gatherings were dinner parties where people ate, laughed, talked and sang songs! Sounds fun, doesn’t it? These fun meals were a way to say, “We’re all one family, even though we came from different places — we all follow Jesus, and that makes this a family meal!”

Maybe your family has meals or foods that remind you of places you have come from, your culture or people you love. Or maybe you and your friends have some of the same favourite foods in common.

Today, thank God that food connects us with others!

Discussion Questions:

1. What comes to mind when you think about a feast? What would your perfect feast include and who would you want to come?
2. What is something that God has done that you think is worthy of a feast?
3. What are some foods that remind you of your family? What memories do you have of making or eating it?
4. Today, we eat foods from all around the world, so we are connected to the people who plant, tend, harvest and prepare those foods. What place around the world would you love to visit because of its food?

Prayer

Dear God, thank You that food is good! Thank You that food connects us with family and friends and can help us make memories and new friends, too. Please help us to be grateful for our food and our families. Please bless the people who grew our food and helped our food get all the way to us from around the world. Amen.