Many people asked a lot of questions about this, so here is my report back.

May specifically asked what the instructor intended for us to learn. This is a 7-week "bible study" who's focus is on food; last Monday's lesson was food as a sacrament. (last week we studied nutrition). It's interesting how the authors put a short bible passage in for reflection along with various historical and current day information relative to the topic.

We didn't spend much time on the exercise per se, except that it was shared that in the early church people would bring food to share as to their means for a communal supper, but then the rich would eat their own food, not really share. We also talked about how we felt, or what we thought or experienced when planning and preparing our challenge food.

There ended up being 6 of us, and we had the assignments

1) 25c

2) 50c

3) 75c

4) $2.00

5) something extravagent

6) communion

$1 and the other "extravagent" were not able to join us.

Here's what they brought

1) 25c: brussel sprouts from her garden cooked with a little oil and salt

2) mine... 50c split peas with curry paste, white rice and onion

3) peanut butter

4) patties made from 1 can of chick peas, 1 can of black beans (both on sale for 50c) brown rice, chives, red and yellow peppers (the last 3 from her garden) and mexican spices.

5) extravagent - 3 gallons of ice cream (choc, strawberry 7 vanilla), bananas, whipped cream, hot chocolate sauce, chopped walnuts

6) matzo and grape juice

We were definitely NOT hungry. There were leftovers of everything, and not because people filled up on banana splits!

ideefixe, I've seen that comparison before - the study of food consumption around the world. They did such a good job of making it "real" with the pictures of the people around the food... what an indictment on the US. Thank you very much for sharing the link.

For me, I got some good ideas for inexpensive lunches I can prepare ahead and bring to work.

....and of course, as I mentioned in the original post, I was once again struck at how blessed we are / I am with an abundance of food and gthe ability to purchase what I want.