This comprehensive, intergenerational curriculum focuses on the food we eat and why it matters. Featuring 7 lessons with Scripture, prayers, resources, and activities for young children through adults, “Eating Well” will challenge and inspire your church or community group. Download your copy today. [...] Continue reading New Curriculum: Eating Well April 17th, 2012 |  Topics: community gardens, farmworkers, food, health, rural life |  Category: Resources |  Leave a comment 
The 2012 County Health Rankings report, recently released by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and the University of Wisconsin Population Health Institute, points to major disparities in health by geographic location – with urban areas like Wake, Durham, Mecklenburg and Guilford counties experiencing overall better health than many rural parts of the state like Columbus, Bladen, Scotland and Robeson counties. The North Carolina Council of Churches, a statewide nonprofit promoting Christian unity and social justice, [...] Continue reading New County Health Rankings Point to Disparities in Health April 10th, 2012 | Topics: aging, children & youth, community gardens, economic justice, environment, equality & reconciliation, farmworkers, food, gender, health, healthcare reform, human rights, mental health, people with disabilities, race/ethnicity | Category: Blog | Leave a comment 
The deadline to guarantee lunch at the 2012 Critical Issues Seminar has been extended to April 12. This year’s seminar, Eating Well for Ourselves, For Our Neighbors, For Our Planet, takes place on April 19 from 8:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. at St. Paul’s Episcopal Church in Winston-Salem. The event offers a series of workshops focused on food as a social justice issue. During lunch, Congresswoman Eva Clayton will speak about world hunger. Clayton, a Presbyterian lay [...] Continue reading Deadline for Critical Issues Seminar Extended; Eva Clayton to Speak at Lunch April 2nd, 2012 | Topics: children & youth, community gardens, economic justice, environment, farmworkers, food, health, interfaith, peace, religion and society, rural life | Category: Blog | Leave a comment 
Alexia Kelley will deliver the keynote address for the North Carolina Council of Churches’ 2012 Critical Issues Seminar, and Father Joe Vetter will receive the Council’s Distinguished Service Award at the April 19 event. Kelley, who is Catholic, is the Director of the Faith-based and Neighborhood Partnerships Center with the Department of Health and Human Services in Washington D.C. She is a graduate of Haverford College with a masters in theological studies from Harvard Divinity School. Her work with [...] Continue reading Keynoter and Distinguished Service Award Recipient Announced for Critical Issues March 26th, 2012 | Topics: community gardens, council news, environment, farmworkers, food, health, peace, religion and society, rural life | Category: Blog | Leave a comment 
As Lent quickly approaches, you may be thinking about a fast or discipline on which you will focus. Oftentimes Lenten practices revolve around food – giving up chocolate or alcohol or kicking the coffee habit. The purpose of Lenten fasting is not to punish you or make you suffer but to draw you closer to God. Discipline requires thought, persistence, and prayer. Lenten practices give us the opportunity to be more mindful of how we [...] Continue reading Eating Well: A Lenten Practice February 15th, 2012 | Topics: environment, farmworkers, food, rural life, worship | Category: Blog | Leave a comment 
To register for the 2012 Critical Issues Seminar and to choose your workshops, complete the form below. The Seminar is taking place April 19 in Winston-Salem. This exciting day-long event focuses on the social justice implications of what we eat and how it is grown, and features experts on issues from farmworkers to food security to personal health. The event also offers a chance to meet with and learn from people who have successfully put their [...] Continue reading Register for 2012 Critical Issues Seminar — “Eating Well: For Ourselves, For Our Neighbors, For Our Planet” February 10th, 2012 | Topics: children & youth, community gardens, economic justice, environment, farmworkers, food, health, immigration, peace, rural life | Category: Blog | Leave a comment 
The newly formed House Select Committee on the State’s Role in Immigration Policy met for the second time in as many months on Wednesday, January 25, 2012. The focus of the most recent Committee hearing was squarely on how much unauthorized immigrants cost the taxpayers of North Carolina. Various state agencies (Department of Revenue, Division of Motor Vehicles, Department of Health and Human Services) presented information primarily about the restrictions already in place that prevent [...] Continue reading Update: GA Committee Meets on Immigration February 7th, 2012 | Topics: farmworkers, human rights, immigration, public education, race/ethnicity | Category: Blog, Raleigh Report | Leave a comment 
I’m pleased to announce the North Carolina Council of Churches has a new curriculum in the works! “Eating Well: For Ourselves, For Our Neighbors, For Our Planet” is an introduction to the issues surrounding the way we grow, harvest, and eat our food. Designed for groups of all ages, “Eating Well” uses games, activities, prayer and discussion to make us aware of our food over a six-week study. I have worked with my colleagues on this [...] Continue reading Announcing the “Eating Well” Curriculum! February 2nd, 2012 | Topics: council news, environment, farmworkers, food, health, rural life, worship | Category: Blog | Leave a comment
Everyone eats. How and from where we get that food, how much is available to us, how it is grown, and what happens when there isn’t enough all have implications for our world and its inhabitants. We need to consider this very fundamental part of our lives as a faith issue. So we hope you’ll join us for the 2012 Critical Issues Seminar, Eating Well: For Ourselves, For Our Neighbors, For Our Planet as we explore [...] Continue reading 2012 Critical Issues Seminar — Eating Well for Ourselves, For Our Neighbors, For Our Planet January 10th, 2012 | Topics: environment, farmworkers, food, health, human rights, peace, rural life | Category: Blog, Events | 2 comments 
From Acts of Faith: Lectionary Resources for Prophetic Worship This bittersweet celebration present in the Beatitudes and in Psalm 126 seems to be speaking of the joy that comes through political conflict and the struggle for social and economic justice in a way that harkens the voice of the prophets. While there is some relief from oppression, there is also work to be done and more hardships to suffer. But because the people who are “sowing seeds” of justice have been oppressed, their journey will be full of advent. [...]Continue reading Justice for Farmworkers – Thanksgiving 
Raleigh News & Observer As we enter this holiday season of feasting, we need to be honest about how our food is produced. America has always relied on cheap labor to make agriculture work. The source of much of that labor used to be slave ships making the Middle Passage. Today it’s no longer slaves but immigrant workers, primarily undocumented people from Mexico and Latin America, whose cheap labor makes possible both low prices at the grocery store and high profits for agribusinesses. [...]Continue reading Our Addiction to Cheap Labor November 24th, 2011 | Topics: economic justice, farmworkers, food, immigration | Category: In the Media | One comment 
Raleigh News & Observer The N.C. Council of Churches has been working for decades to improve conditions for farm workers in our state. Sadly, too much remains unchanged over that time. Field and poultry workers do backbreaking work, but they don’t have the same protections on the job that everyone else has. Now with the recent filing of a complaint against the N.C. Department of Labor, it appears that even the few laws on the books designed to protect farm workers have been systematically ignored (“Dirty jobs,” Oct. 15 editorial). [...]Continue reading Farm Labor Protection October 29th, 2011 | Topics: farmworkers, good government | Category: In the Media | Leave a comment 
Last week I visited with a great group of students at Episcopal Campus Ministry (Raleigh) to talk about farmworkers, food and faith. Some students had just visited Episcopal Farmworker Ministry in Newton Grove, NC, where they had volunteered their time to visit with workers, provide clothes and other necessities, and learn about life as a farmworker in North Carolina’s fields. The visit raised many questions about the injustices in our food system and the seeming invisibility of the people who make it possible with their hard labor. Even though 85% of fruits and vegetables are picked by hand, many students remarked that they had never learned anything about farmworkers at all before getting involved with Episcopal Campus Ministry. [...] Continue reading Farmworkers are People, Too 
I’ve been thinking about Daniel a lot lately. Daniel and his buddies were in the first wave of exiles to Babylon. King Nebuchadnezzar had them brought to the palace and assigned them a daily portion of royal food and wine. But Daniel refused to eat the rations. Why? They were royal, sumptuous. But they weren’t kosher. Daniel proposed a test – allow him and his fellow Israelites to eat just vegetables and water for ten [...] Continue reading The Daniel Fast is Not a Diet October 13th, 2011 | Topics: farmworkers, food, health, religion and society, rural life | Category: Blog | One comment 
When the weather starts to cool, I begin thinking more and more about the North Carolina State Fair, which takes place this year Oct. 13-23. The fair has become an important part of my fall season during my years here. Still, let’s face it: it is a somewhat hazardous part of the fall season, too. There’s the traffic, for example, which does more damage to my general state of calm than I like to admit. And, [...] Continue reading Navigating the State Fair October 6th, 2011 | Topics: farmworkers, food, health, rural life | Category: Blog | Leave a comment  Print This Post
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