Diners, drive-ins & the divine: Reporting on religion & food

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From the way we procure food to the way we prepare a meal; from the way we set the table to who sits with us; from what we consume to how we eat it — food customs and practices provide a veritable feast, as it were, about what people believe, value and celebrate.

Or, as Sue McLaughlin, executive producer of the PBS series The Meaning of Food put it: “Our attitudes, practices, and rituals around food are a window into our most basic beliefs about our world and ourselves.”

Whether reporters are writing about feasting or fasting, food sourcing or climate justice, there are numerous “religion and food” angles to cover.

In this edition of ReligionLink we provide background, resources, related stories and expert sources for journalists writing on the numerous intersections between what we eat and what we believe.

Background

Whether it’s fasting or feeding spirits, killing animals for consumption (or not), passing around a plate and chalice during a pagan ceremony, making food as part of pilgrimage or throwing potluck dinners, food plays a big part in many religious traditions.

Most of us like to eat. And although food and foodways are diverse, the basic processes of collection, cultivation, consumption and related practices around them are fairly common. Numerous studies have shown how choices made between what to eat and what not to eat are wrapped up in culturally attuned sensations and how food practices offer insights into the political sensibilities, the societal dynamics or the transformation of specific cultures and communities.

David Freidenreich wrote that food is a “powerful medium” for the expression and transmission of everyday spiritual practice of identity. It also shapes how we understand our religious, moral and ethical selves. From the way we procure the food to the way we prepare the meal, from the way we set the table to who sits at it with us, from what we eat to how we eat it — all of this provides a means for understanding individuals’ and groups’ understanding of their selfhood, that of others and how they interact with the world around them. Through food, individuals and communities make meaning, uphold and cross boundaries, give and receive, include and exclude or seek the divine and avoid both the pure and impure in the context of worship and the everyday.

In other words, religious values shape how we feast and fast, how we feed deities and ourselves, but also how we source and supply, preserve and store, prepare and serve, consume and share our food with others. 

Food, as one of the “things” that engages religious practitioners’ bodies and physical world, is part of religion’s “material life.” Thus, it provides a particularly delectable opportunity for reporters to go beyond thoughts, texts and traditions to explore everyday, lived religion. This can go a long way in humanizing, and helping readers better relate to, religious traditions they may not understand or may view as foreign and/or strange.

In the end, reporting on religion and food helps journalists better cover the complexity of lived religion and how religious experiences are shaped by particular traditions, territories and tastes.

Story prompts

Reporters have investigated food in the context of specific religious traditions, examined the way those traditions treat food as a moral and ethical category and explored various power dynamics associated with food. While religion and food topics can make for excellent features, there are also hard news angles that pair well with the topic.

Here are some other story prompts you might consider:

  • How do converts adjust their eating practices if their newfound religion requires a dietary shift?
  • How are younger practitioners adapting traditional food practices for a new generation? Or sharing them on social media platforms like Instagram and TikTok?
  • How are market choices and ethics of sustainability impacted by consumers’ religious outlooks?
  • How are businesses making money on religious food traditions? Are there novel concepts and fusions being introduced by restaurants and food trucks in your area?
  • How do religious traditions and values shape how people view land and resources used to grow our food and the moral implications that surround these elements?
  • How are religious actors using food to advance their chosen cause of advocacy or justice?
  • What food-related myths, rituals and texts might be lesser known in your community or readership?
  • What might be gained by comparing the role of food and fasting in different traditions, addressing topics such as ritual practice, health, relations between humans and the divine, and sustainability?
  • How do food practices reflect and shape gender and social roles among and in between diverse populations in the United States?
  • How do different traditions define “food” in the first place?

Related newswriting

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Sources & experts

  • Claire Babineaux-Fontenot

    Claire Babineaux-Fontenot is the CEO of Feeding America, a nationwide network of food banks, food pantries and meal programs.

    Contact: 800-771-2303.

  • Bread for the World

    Bread for the World is the largest faith-based advocacy movement against hunger, a collective of Christian groups. It posts hunger facts and figures. It is based in Washington, D.C.

  • Cucina Aurora

    Cucina Aurora describes itself as “kitchen witchery” and features a range of products and recipes inspired by its owner, Dawn Aurora Hunt, “The Kitchen Witch.”

  • Michel Desjardins

    Michel Desjardins researches the role food plays in people’s spiritual lives at Wilfrid Laurier University.

  • Michael A. Di Giovine

    Michael A. Di Giovine is professor of anthropology at West Chester University and director of its Museum of Anthropology and Archaeology. His research in Italy and Southeast Asia lies at the intersection of global mobilities (tourism/pilgrimage and immigration), heritage, development, foodways and comparative religious movements.

  • Barry Dolinger

    Rabbi Barry Dolinger leads Congregation Beth Sholom in Providence, Rhode Island. He has expanded the reach of his faith community by launching a variety of small businesses, including a company that aims to increase access to kosher food.

  • Gary W. Fick

    Gary W. Fick is professor emeritus of agronomy at Cornell University and author of Food, Farming and Faith.

  • Luis Guardia

    Luis Guardia is the president of the Food Research & Action Center. Contact Jordan Baker with media inquiries.

  • Craig Gundersen

    Craig Gundersen is a professor in the economics department  at Baylor University and holds the Snee Family Endowed Chair at the Baylor Collaborative on Hunger and Poverty. He studies the causes and consequences of food insecurity and evaluates food assistance programs.

  • Ruth Illman

    Ruth Illman is director of the Donner Institute for Research into Religion and Culture at Åbo Akademi University Foundation (SÅA) in Turku, Finland. Her research concerns questions pertaining to Jewish life in the Nordics today, cultural encounters and interreligious dialogue, ethnographic research methodology within cultural studies. She was co-editor of a volume on religion and food practices.

  • Islamic Relief USA

    Islamic Relief USA is a California-based international Islamic nonprofit agency founded in 1984. It operates projects in education and training, water and sanitation, income generation, orphan support, health and nutrition, and emergency relief in foreign countries and in the U.S. It has a four-star rating from Charity Navigator.

  • Islamic Relief Worldwide

    Islamic Relief Worldwide, based in Birmingham, U.K., provided aid to Darfur. Its U.S. branch is based in Buena Vista, California.

  • Richie L. Liu

    Richie L. Liu is associate professor of marketing at Xavier University. His research and teaching are focused in the areas of branding and pro-social marketing, including how religiosity shapes consumer choices.

  • MAZON: A Jewish Response to Hunger

    MAZON: A Jewish Response to Hunger is a national nonprofit agency working against hunger in the United States and abroad. Its president and CEO is Abby J. Leibman. Media contact is Liza Lieberman.

  • Gwion Raven

    Gwion Raven is a pagan writer, traveler, musician, cook, kitchen witch, occult shop owner and teacher. Raven is the author of The Magick of Food, a book of lore, recipes and practices from modern and ancient cultures. Contact through their publisher, Llewellyn.

  • Felicia Cocotzin Ruiz

    Felicia Cocotzin Ruiz is a curandera, author, Indigenous foods activist and natural foods chef whose work is deeply rooted in the healing properties of all earth medicines.

  • Michael Schut

    Michael Schut is the Seattle-based author of Food & Faith: Justice, Joy and Daily Bread. He leads retreats on the topics of spirituality, sustainability and eco-justice.

  • Colleen Taylor Sen

    Colleen Taylor Sen is a Canadian-American translator and author specializing in Indian cuisine. In 2023, she published The Bloomsbury Handbook of Indian Cuisine, co-edited by Sourish Bhattacharyya and Helen Saberi, with entries by over 25 leading food historians and journalists.

  • Aicha Smith-Belghaba

    Aicha Smith-Belghaba is an Indigenous and Algerian chef of the Six Nations of the Grand River reserve. She is the founder of Esha’s Eats, which not only creates recipes based on her dual heritage, but focuses on issues of Indigenous food sovereignty.

  • Sikhs for Humanity

    Sikhs for Humanity is an Edmonton, Canada-based non-profit providing free meals to all, regardless of background. They are one of numerous Sikh organizations across Canada, the US and the UK taking the traditional concept of the “langar”, or shared meal, out of the temple and onto the street.

  • Christina Ward

    Christina Ward describes herself as “an author, editor, and seeker.” Her most recent book is Holy Food: How Cults, Communes, and Religious Movements Influenced What We Eat—An American History. 

  • Heather A. Warfield

    Heather A. Warfield is a professor at Antioch University New England. After a career as a mental health therapist, she pursued research on the therapeutic value of pilgrimages. In the decade since, she has delved further into what motivates people to go on pilgrimages, the stories pilgrims share and the meaning pilgrims create from their journeys — including the publication of Food and the Pilgrim about pilgrimage related food practices.

  • Benjamin Zeller

    Benjamin Zeller is chair of the religion department at Lake Forest College. He focuses on religious currents that are new or alternative, including new religions, the religious engagement with science, and the quasi-religious relationship people have with food.

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