Faith and the right to food

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This article was published 11/12/2010 (5797 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

For southern Manitoba painter Margruite Krahn, a bowl of soup, a slice of homemade pie and lots of laughter around the table in a church hall is a perfect recipe for a functioning community.

“Even when things are tough, it is healthy to have social gatherings around food,” says Krahn, who lives and paints in a renovated barn in the village of Neubergthal, near Altona.

“One of the things that really struck me when I went to the church basement (dinner at Altona United Church) is that people were leaving with (extra) food they were bringing to shut-ins.”

Krahn’s acrylic and crayon painting of a church’s soup and pie supper that extended beyond the visible participants is one of 39 works of art about the right to food from a faith perspective currently at the Mennonite Heritage Centre Gallery.

Titled Just food, the exhibit features work by 19 artists from 13 countries and addresses the right for all humans to have food, says curator Ray Dirks.

In addition to Krahn, other Manitoba artists include Winnipeggers Bob Haverluck, Hashim Hannoon and Isam Aboud.

The paintings are complemented with posters outlining facts about hunger, theological reasons for feeding the hungry, stories about Christians extending food aid and quotes from the Old Testament and various United Nations resolutions on food and hunger.

“We wanted to partner those Canadian artists with international artists so you’d get different perspectives on the texts,” says Dirks, referring to six groups of artists who responded to the biblical quotes and UN resolutions.

Providing different perspectives on the idea of food and people’s right to satisfy their appetites is the point of the exhibit, a project of the Mennonite Committee on Human Rights and sponsored by various agencies, including Canadian Foodgrains Bank, Mennonite Central Committee and the Geneva-based group Ecumenical Advocacy Alliance.

“We have a vision for a world without hunger,” says James Kornelsen of the Canadian Foodgrains Bank. “We are to remember the poor, to live for justice, to make sure we focus our energy on (eliminating) injustice.”

While Krahn’s large painting celebrates abundance and hospitality at communal church meals, other works deal with a darker side of hunger. A pair of paintings by Mozambique artist Jossias Sitoe reflects his feelings of invisibility during his childhood of living on the streets, while Cuban artist Jairo Alfonso Castellanos depicts a precarious tower of cooking utensils in his interpretation of the exhibit’s theme.

All people should have access to food and other basics of life and it is up to those who have enough to advocate for those who don’t, says an aid worker working in the world’s disaster hot spots.

“The whole idea is about working with those who are affected by disaster, by hunger,” explains William Reimer of the Mennonite Central Committee. “Our role is to speak out, to act, to try to make sure all people have access to food like we do.”

Acting for food justice includes buying fair-trade products, supporting local farmers and educating oneself about the issues around hunger and poverty both in Canada and globally, says Kornelsen.

“The question to people of faith is to what am I entitled? Am I entitled to buy all the cheap food I want?” he says.

“Food hits us every day because we have to eat and every time you eat it has an impact on someone somewhere else.”

And despite the fact the exhibit runs over Christmas, a time of banquets, family dinners and general overindulgence, people of faith shouldn’t feel guilty about celebrating the season with good food, says a member of the committee that organized the exhibit.

“We’re saying when you go to the table, be thankful and remember that the table extends beyond you,” says Wendy Kroeker.

“Celebrate the abundance you have and also work so that others can all have that abundance.”

For Krahn, portraying ordinary events such as community church suppers in art provides another perspective for how we celebrate food and the community that gathers around a meal.

“My faith tells me that we need to be aware and not disconnected from the food we eat, the people around us and the way it affects our spiritual state.”

brenda@suderman.com

Art on the menu

The Just Food exhibit runs at the Mennonite Heritage Centre Gallery, 600 Shaftesbury Blvd. until Jan. 15, 2011. Admission is by donation. Call 888-6781 for gallery hours.

The 39 paintings in the exhibit are also posted in a slideshow at the website of the Evangelical Advocacy Alliance, http://www.e-alliance.ch/en/s/

Click on the food tab.

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