Ep 219 How Food and the Table Helps Defeat Loneliness with Kendall Vanderslice

Kendall Vanderslice joins us today to talk bread, food, community, and loneliness—all some of my favorite topics. Founder of the non-profit,  EdibleTheology.com, Kendall shares her wisdom regarding cultural polarization, and how eating together is a vulnerable and soul-filling activity. I love her call to include "rhythms of times at the table" in an effort to stave off our default into isolation. And, that when we do, we feel more known, respected and healed.

Author of We Will Feast, By Bread Alone, as well as the digital course, Bake With the Bible, Kendall also promotes a program we can use in our churches to build community and love, even in the middle of an election year! (Maybe especially in the middle of an election year!) And she is offering a copy of her recently released book/memoir: By Bread Alone: A Baker's Reflections on Hunger, Longing and the Goodness of God.

Some gems from our conversation:

• To eat together takes vulnerability at some level which leads to deeper sharing and better knowing of one another.
• Loneliness has negative effects on our brains and our bodies. 
• God speaks to us in the act of cooking and eating.
• Healing is possible around the table. Pull up a chair.
• Sharing stories and meals can fill gaps and foster connections unlike any other thing.
• Invite others into your home on purpose when it's not all cleaned up and perfect.
• We can love better when we don't agree on topics when we cook and eat together. 
• To stave off loneliness, purpose to plan your life around rhythms of eating at the table with others.

Her favorite thing to bake (I asked!) is "Sourdough on Training Wheels." Sounds like my kind of sourdough.

In her own words

Hello! I’m Kendall Vanderslice – yes, before you ask, that is my true name.

It’s just by chance (or the humor of God) that I ended up in a field so fitting. I’m a baker and writer, whose best thinking occurs as I work dough between my hands; I scribble down thoughts on pieces of parchment dusted in flour, until I can parse them out later before my keyboard. When I embarked on a career as a pastry chef, I found that my love of bread transformed the ways I read scripture. Fascinated by God’s use of food throughout the arc of the Gospel, I merged my work in the kitchen with academic study of food and theology.

I founded the educational nonprofit Edible Theology as an outlet for further research and public engagement in this sphere. You can get a taste for our work by listening to our weekly podcast Kitchen Meditations.

I’m a graduate of Wheaton College in Illinois (BA Anthropology), where I began engaging questions of food and faith. Interested in commensality—or, the social dynamics of eating together—I studied food at Boston University (MLA Gastronomy). My thesis on church meals sparked a range of theological questions, leading me to Duke University where I wrote a thesis on the theology of bread (MTS). In 2018 I was named a James Beard Foundation national scholar for my work on food and religion.

My first book, We Will Feast: Rethinking Dinner, Worship, and the Community of God, released May 2019. My second book, By Bread Alone: A Baker’s Reflections on Hunger, Longing, and the Goodness of God, releases February 2023.