Planting Seeds: Calendar

• February 12, 2012 (12:30-2:30): Food for Thought - View and discuss the film Food, Inc. (Adult Enrichment)
• February 19, 2012 (9:15):  Helping Hands multi-age activity (Faith Development)
• March 4, 2012 (12:30-1:30): CSAs: Getting Your Share - Learn about community supported agriculture. (Adult Enrichment)
• March 18, 2012 (12:30-1:30): What's for Dinner? - Discuss Michael Pollen’s book The Omnivore’s Dilemma. (Adult Enrichment)
• April 12-May 17, 2012 (Thursdays, 7:30-9:00 PM): Hungry for Change - A 6-session course challenging participants to examine their roles as consumers of food and creators of food, of systems, and of the world we all live in.  ($21) (Adult Enrichment)
• April 15, 2012 (9:15):  Helping Hands multi-age activity (Faith Development)
• May 25-28, 2012:  COA1 Food Mission Trip (Faith Development)
• June 9, 2012:  Visit to Boston Food Bank (Social Action Committee)

Planting Seeds: Focus On Food

Last year, we did something new – we decided to focus as a whole church (through an extensive discussion and voting) on one social justice theme for two years.   We decided to focus on Food.  To make it simpler for all of us to get involved, our new Planting Seeds Coordinating Group (the successor to the Community Engagement Task Force) will be sending out a weekly newsletter column completely devoted to sharing information about the many opportunities for being part of this exciting work.  Be ready to look on the UUCR website soon for the page where we will make sure the information about all the programs and initiatives being offered by various committees is gathered in one place.

Like many of you, I want to be part of this social justice initiative.  I have good intentions about improving my diet, teaching my kids how to eat better, and participating in a more just distribution of food and other natural resources.  The  idea of focusing on food as a church community is very exciting to me.  But I still need help converting that excitement into honest-to-goodness engagement.   I had to ask myself, how do I get from my excitement and good intentions to learning and doing with my community?  How do we get from excitement to engagement?

As it turns out, already there is much happening as well as great opportunities in the coming months at UUCR.   Join the movement!

As we move forward with our Focus on Food, I would love to talk with more of you about how your own engagement with this topic is affecting how you eat or think about food.  If there is something you’d like to share, please email the coordinating group: Content Form 

I look forward to hearing from you!
Iris Hardin
Planting Seeds Coordinating Group (successor to the Community Engagement Task Force)