The Power of Food



Cover of book by Susan Schwartzenberg

Since starting this blog with my daughter, I’ve become more aware of food. Not the taste of food or the smell of food but the role food has in relationships and the power it can have as a catalyst of change.

I was looking at a book the other day.  It’s called “Becoming Citizens; Family Life and the Politics of Disability”, by Susan Schwartzenberg. The author of this book was commissioned to tell the stories of four women who, in the 1970’s, fought for the educational rights of their children. These children, according the State and other professionals, were severely disabled and could not be educated (code words for we don’t want them).

The mothers refused to believe what they were told. Refused to believe what the authorities said about their children. They believed what every mother believes. “My child is just as important as your child.  My child has a right to an education just like other children.  

So these four mothers and two law students from the University of Washington set out to change things.  How did they do it?  With food!  Yes, with food.  They invited their congressmen to a lunch of homemade food – home cooking! Not cafeteria food, not food from a hoity-toity restaurant, but home cooking; food from their own kitchens.  

The mothers knew a simple truth. A cook gives more than food to the guest. One cannot accept a home cooked meal and reject the cook. Acceptance of the meal requires relationship, calls for dialogue and breeds understanding. That’s why family meals are so important, they help us see our interconnectedness with each other and the world.






Signing of HB 90 (Washington State's Educatio for all Bill) left to right
Janet Taggart, Katie Dolan, Cecile Lindquist, Governor Daniel Evans, Evelyn Chapman, George Breck, and William Dussault (insert)  from the Book Becoming Citizens, page 73



The Congressmen took notice and listened.  And the mothers accomplished the unimaginable. They, with the two law students, wrote the law that put Washington State on the map as the first state in the country to provide a free education for every child between the ages of 3 and 21. Eventually this law was the basis for Federal Law 94-142 that guarantees all children in the United States, regardless of disability, the right to a free education.

For the past 25 years my family has lived with the son of one of these women. Unfortunately, by the time the law passed he was too old to take advantage of the free education his mother fought for but, millions of other children have attended school because these four mothers had a mission and used good ole’ home cookin’ as one of the tools to accomplish their goal.

I hope that as I continue to learn about food and relationships that I will see that each meal I eat has been given to me as a gift – even if I am the cook.  For, even if I eat alone, I can never eat a meal in isolation - because each bite I take is really a statement about how I choose to live my live on this earth with you.

Blessings and health in 2012

Cheryl