When we don’t value food and meals as a necessary component of community life, it becomes easy to consume empty calories in isolation — in our cars, at our desks, or watching TV.
This mindless consumption results in negative health outcomes including obesity, heart disease, and a myriad of other complications. Our disconnection from food as physical and social nourishment has many consequences on our communities, particularly for low-income BIPOC communities. These communities oftentimes lack access to healthy foods due to their high price, meaning that these communities are at greater risk for diseases associated with poor eating habits. Consequently, life expectancy for BIPOC communities is 4 to 5 years less than those of affluent white communities.
Mindful Eating for the Beloved Community sparks powerful conversations incorporating food narratives from the community, interactive learning experiential workshops, and mindful eating initiatives that explore the historical and cultural shifts in community. Throughout human history, the preparation and sharing of food was not only a means of survival, but also a powerfully healing social activity rooted in family, faith, and community. The program explores mindful eating methods, connects health with career success, helps produce positive, more inclusive work environments, and fosters leadership and social accountability for role models and mentors.
The MEBC initiative will promote thought leadership and mindfulness as a lens through which to not only improve diet and health, but to make whole the bodies, minds, and spirits of BIPOC communities. This will help create a central pathway to equity, high performance, and resilience in the workplace. There will be several key themes:
Understanding the current community food systems and how they impact food choices that oftentimes prevent healthy approaches to diet and nutrition.
Creating a new paradigm of mindful eating, where eating is understood as an expression of dignity, self-respect, empowerment, and self-actualization.
Reconnecting food to family, community, and culture. As Chef Kubui, a contributor to the book, Mindful Eating, remarked, “In Africa it is the healthy village that is the most prosperous.”
Gaining gratitude for food — the Earth from which it grows from, the people that sustain it, and the people that prepare it.
Emphasizing the importance of sustainability, waste, and our climate
Understanding how we all play a role in uplifting all aspects of the beloved. Our MEBC Program Vision and Interactive Workshops are also essential to understanding our goals, accomplishments, and inspiration.