Advocate Health Care’s Congregational Health Partnerships program spearheaded this collaborative project to develop a curriculum for Christian congregations that explores eating as a practice of faith.  Just Eating? was created to help people of faith find deep and creative solutions to the growing issue of obesity in our communities by drawing on the teachings and practices of our faith traditions.

In a 7-week study series, the program covers topics such as:

• Food Sharing as Sacramental
• Nurturing the Body
• Hunger
• Food and the Environment
• Creating Community with Food

The Center uses the Just Eating? curriculum as a tool to engage faith communities in addressing food access, obesity prevention, and health issues.  We regularly hold workshops to orient congregational leaders to the curriculum and prepare them to use it.

Just Eating? has been so successful that we received additional grants from our funders to create several adaptations. We now also have the curriculum for:

• Middle School Students (in English and Spanish), written by Holly Johnson
• Latino Audiences (adapted to be culturally and language appropriate), adapted by Rev. Neddy Astudillo
• African American Audiences (adapted to be culturally appropriate by Tanya Lane and Veronica Kyle from Faith in Place)

Download all versions of the  Just Eating? curriculum.

If you’d like to host a workshop in your congregation, contact us and we’d be happy to work with you to set one up.

Our project partners were Church World Service and the Presbyterian Hunger Program.  The project was funded by a Practicing Our Faith Grant from the Valparaiso Project on the Education and Formation of People of Faith, and the Genesis Fund of the United Church of Christ.  Jennifer Halteman Schrock wrote the curriculum.