Food...for thought

Food...for Thought

As we collect food in the Yoga Centre’s entrance hall, ready to be donated to the S6 Food Bank over the summer holidays, I am drawn to reflecting on this everyday substance that is anything but ordinary. It seems like Food (capital F) is more and more at the centre of our thinking; from the price of it, to the availability of it, to the quality of it. 

It has begun to feel that what most of us have always taken for granted is no longer a certainty.

At the Centre we have for years done a regular food collection for the S6 Foodbank down the road. We are in the same S6 community. Chatting to the amazing people who run the Foodbank, Chris told me of how they have never seen such a demand; that people are queuing every day for essentials and they now need to provide thousands of meals each week.

And it’s not just food for the stomach that they provide. They also set up an allotment in our beautiful nearby Rivelin Valley to teach people how to grow their own food. One man, who was seriously drug dependant and lost his children as a result, has now learnt to cook and been hired by a local cafe, giving him the confidence to become clean from drugs. A wonderful story, one of many that started with food.

In Yoga, our food is seen as an important part of our practice. We know for example not to eat a big meal before we get on our mat. The ancient texts of Ayurveda (the sister Vedic discipline to Yoga) also give advice on food; how we should eat freshly cooked food which has the greatest prana (vital energy), how it is best to eat our meals at regular times and not late in the evening. And that we should never over eat. Somehow those simple principles feel more important than ever as we learn to value and appreciate each meal in a new way. We can’t take it for granted and of course never could. 

I know that being aware of those really struggling to feed their loved ones will make many of us more generous in sharing what we can. Perhaps if we can also apply these yogic principles to our own food habits, even making one small change, we can walk alongside those with no choice about how much they might eat, making a difference to the bigger community in which we all live.
 

Stay well

Frances
 

In case you are interested to know more; https://sheffields6.foodbank.org.uk/