Edge Learning

Year of Plenty

Larry and Matt, thank you for your comments on my last post. It is amazing how changes in our lives often seem to come more from our relationships with key people than an idea we hear or read about. Here is a recent article from the Inlander, a local Spokane paper about my sister and brother-in-law, who are both pastors at Millwood Presbyterian Church in Spokane. They challenge me on the issues of consumerism, consumption, and meaningful relationship.

When Spokavores Eat Out

Dining locally doesn’t have to mean just eating at locations where the ingredients are all locally grown or raised. For the Goodwin family of Spokane Valley, which has embarked on a year-long exercise in reducing consumption and buying local, it means eschewing fast food and chain restaurants in favor of those that are owned by people within their community. In other words, Starbucks is out, Rocket Bakery is in.

“When I support a local restaurant, I am directly supporting the livelihood of someone who has taken a risk to invest in the local community,” explains Craig Goodwin, pastor of Millwood Community Presbyterian Church. “The least we can do is support them and reward them for that investment.”

There are probably as many reasons for dining locally as there are restaurants: supporting the community, eating better and embracing the slower-is-better approach that sit-down restaurants proffer over fast-food places. For the Goodwins, not only is it the right thing to do, it’s the righteous thing to do, as they draw inspiration from 2nd Corinthians:

“Our desire is not that others might be relieved while you are hard pressed, but that there might be equality. At the present time your plenty will supply what they need, so that in turn their plenty will supply what you need. Then there will be equality, as it is written: ‘He who gathered much did not have too much, and he who gathered little did not have too little.’”

Since January, Craig, his wife, Nancy, and their children have been blogging about their “experiment in consumption” at www.yearofplenty.org. The blog’s title gives an indication of the tone of their overall message: decidedly upbeat and hopeful. And wonderfully humorous and humble. “What did people do before plastic wrap and aluminum foil?” reads a recent entry. “Nancy says they used Tupperware, but I don’t remember seeing Tupperware on the old episodes of Little House on the Prairie.”

One blog feature is a list of area farmers markets, including the market in Millwood that the Goodwins helped found. (Visit www.millwoodpc.org and select “Farmers Market.”) That experience, combined with a general dissatisfaction over Christmas-season consumerism, fueled the Goodwins’ interest in going local.

Their basic rules of consumption include making the product, growing the food item or buying from a local producer. Their efforts encompass the family’s entire lifestyle, but they’ve also paid attention to where and how they will dine out. Because they limit their day-to-day consumption, the Goodwins allow themselves quite a bit of freedom when dining out, provided the place is locally owned.

“Our restaurant rule for the year is that once a week we venture out to a local restaurant and make an extra effort to get to know the owners,” they write. “We also give ourselves the freedom to eat whatever is on the menu. This is our weekly decompression exercise and rebellion- suppression technique.”

Under the blog’s heading, “Chain Restaurant Replacement Guide,” they list the places they visit in lieu of franchises. Instead of Subway, for example, they favor the Corner Door in Millwood; they’ll patronize Mary Lou’s Milk Bottle or Ron’s Drive-In for ice cream and Kim Do or Vina for Asian cuisine.

“We make a point of asking to speak to the owners … [and] hear a bit of their stories,” says Craig. “We think of our diet as a relational diet in which we are intentionally learning the hopes, dreams and realities of local people’s lives.” About the most important thing we humans can do, he says, is to relate to each other.

In addition to creating connections with restaurateurs, the Goodwins strengthen connections within their family while dining out. “We’ve had great conversations with each other and our kids about the things we value and the reasons we do things,” Craig says. By comparison, imagine the kinds of meaningful conversations a family could have in the car while trying to navigate the drive-thru lane.

With family dining a near-forgotten tradition among Americans, the Goodwins’ approach is both inspiring and a little saddening. For me, dining out with my family as a child is something I will always remember and treasure; it was a rare time when everyone got along and we children were included in interesting conversations, plans for the future, and a sense of togetherness I have never been able to reproduce. There was more nourishment than just the food on our plates.

For as Deuteronomy says, humans do not live by bread alone.

– CARRIE SCOZZARO

Check out Craig and Nancy’s blog at www.yearofplenty.org for more details and recipes.