Shaping Families

Eating Healthier as a Family

What’s for dinner? Does the thought cause you more than the usual panic about what to fix? Are there family members who won’t eat meat (or milk or cheese or eggs?), others who want meat all the time, others with allergies? Do you just wish for a way to find and use healthier, locally grown vegetables, fruits, or meats?

Valerie Showalter and Christine Burkholder address some of these questions as guests on Shaping Families this week.

Listen - Transcript - Study Guide

Potluck

Rebecca Thatcher Murcia

When my sons were young they enjoyed helping their farmer grandmother feed and water her flock of chickens, and then searching through the piles of dry sugar cane stalks for nests the chickens might have hidden inside the sugar cane boiling shed. “If you find a nest with one egg in it, leave it there,” their Colombian grandmother would say, “It’s called a nest egg, and you leave it so the hens will come back and lay more.”

VIDEO
Peace DVD – A study curriculum tackling many facets of peaceful living; what we eat; video interviews of Christine, Valerie and others. Two-hour DVD with 24 stories on peacemaking themes, such as volunteering, how far food has to travel to stores, Biblical dramas, and people making choices about food, work, and actions that lead to peace. Six-session series with accompanying materials at www.peaceDVD.com. 

Tomato Story – Where does your food come from? Video about the typical journey of a tomato in North America from field to grocery store.

Community Support Agriculture – A brief visual introduction to the Community Supported Agriculture Farm of Christine and Marlin Burkholder and why they stay away from commercial fertilizers.

ONLINE 
Burkholder’s “Glen Eco Farm” near Singers Glen, Va., raises wholesome foods—many organic—and offers food on a subscription basis through “Community Supported Agriculture.” 

Valerie Showalter participated in the Mennonite Church’s “Mennonite Voluntary Service Program.” To explore more, click here. 

Living More With Less – A growing section of the Third Way Café website offering ideas, resources, radio spots, videos, and more.

Mennonite Creation Care Network – A Mennonite website dedicated to environmental concerns including food choices.

Harrisonburg Farmer’s Market – Christine and her husband Marlin bring goods to this Farmer’s Market, where Valerie, and other Shaping Families' Harrisonburg-based staff, frequently shop.

Spiritualizing Your Diet

Burton Buller

I once had an employee who was a vegetarian. Not all that unusual, you may think. And you’d be right. But it was WHERE this person was a vegetarian that was unusual.

For Better and Worse

How does a married couple cope with the major depression of one spouse? Susan and Stan share intimately their trials and joys, with plenty of tips for other couples. Stan had to move from “protecting” his spouse to standing back and letting her return to her normal role in the household and marriage.

Vegetable Lasagna

In this week's My Turn segment, Rebecca Murcia talks about the hard choices we must make to eat ethically and responsibly. This veggie lasagna recipe "has received rave reviews from vegetarians and meat eaters alike."

• Shaping Families Update - May 12
• Shaping Families Update - May 5
• Shaping Families Update - April 28
• Shaping Families Update - April 21

The Shaping Families free offer from this week’s program is no longer available. Visit our online store at www.MennoMedia.org/store if you would like to purchase the item offered. Some items are not offered on the store.