Have you ever found that you have needed to stretch a dinner, and the meal has gone further than you think it possibly could?
Do you have friends or family staying for dinner and your Bolognese must serve 6 instead of 4? Or someone turns up and the cake you have made needs to be cut into more pieces?
In the Gospel of Matthew, Jesus feeds 5000 people with 5 loaves of bread and 2 fish… and there was still 12 basketfuls of leftovers. Our first thoughts are HOW? How can such little food be spread across so many? I have been a part of the exercise, where a slice of bread is passed around a group, and each person must take a pinch of the bread. If everyone takes their share, there is usually something left. Maybe this happens with the 5,000? Everyone is taking a little amount… their pinchful!
This is something we notice regularly at the Larder. With everyone taking just what they need, sometimes less than their 10 or 20, we still have bits and bobs left over. (And, that is after serving 80-100 people across 2 sites!)
We also hear stories, from different households, about how an item of food can be used within 2 or 3 recipes per week. Pumpkins being made into pies, stews and pasta sauces. Tinned peaches used in crumbles, cakes and even jams! Each item of food can produce more recipes than you might initially think.
With the cost-of-living crisis, we need to look at the food we eat slightly differently. What else can we do with it? Is there really “just enough” or do we have more to share? When the need to share arises, God ensures we always have enough. All of our food can go that little bit further…
