WHO PAYS FOR THE FREE FOODS SERVED AFTER RELIGIOUS SERVICES?

Examiner.com
July 7, 9:25 AM

Some people actually are using the recession to make the round of
snacking food or three-course buffet meals served after religious
services at various houses of worship, regardless of the faith. Here’s
what some houses of worship or non-worship serve. Although some people
attend various services of worship or meeting and leave a five or
ten dollar donation on the plate when it’s passed around to pay for
the usually free food offered, there are crashers with the nerve to
show up after services only to stand in the food line, pretending to
be one of the worshippers who just came out of the building.

That’s naughty. But if you’re hungry and penniless, perhaps, you’ll
keep from starving. Unfortunately, some of the people crashing
after-services snacking can afford it, but are well, crashers. Not
that it’s right, of course, but servers note they see it done.

Here’s what is served. At one of the Unitarian-Universalist churches,
you can attend services and afterward buy a delicious lunch for a $5
donation that usually consists of raw multi-vegetable salads, beans,
pasta, cooked vegetables, beverage, and dessert. The beverage may
be juice, coffee, or tea. At some of the area synagogues, there’s
a bean and vegetable stew, sometimes with some added meat called
cholent followed by a fruit and vegetable salad and challah (egg
bread) served at Chabad House (orthodox/Hassidic), and a full meal
including beans, bagels, cheese, salads, fruits, with dessert served
after Saturday morning services at Mosaic Law. Other synagogues serve
vegetable dips, toasts of small amount of wine, beans, cakes, and
snacks. Some synagogues may invite a guest for lunch, socializing
and discussions related to religion at the rabbi’s wife’s house
(usually women’s groups). Other houses of worship may serve lunch
in the courtyards or social halls. Occassional dinners on holidays,
concerts, or and seniors’ brunches cost a small donation sometimes.

Other senior lunches or brunches are free. Related to the houses of
worship meetings might be genealogy groups that meet on weekends or
the group goes to a restaurant. That’s where the free lunch ends. Other
houses of worship do serve free food either just after services. Some
churches also offer a free dinner night for low-income people. The
type of free food varies from snacks to actual lunch meals. Holiday
dinners usually costs a fee. Additionally, there may be fundraising
dinners. As far as free food, Catholic churches such as St. Ignatius
parish serve donuts and coffee after some morning services. The
freethinkers and atheists groups might serve cookies and juice or
coffee during break or after the meeting. Or they congegate in an
eatery a few blocks away after the meeting one Sunday afternoon
per month. Protestant churches in the area usually serve coffee and
cake, cookies, or donuts. The Greek Orthodox church has a once a year
"Greek for a Day" food festival at the Convention center open to all,
with a wide variety of Greek foods that cost anywhere from $8 to
$10 for a meal. Vegetarian and non-vegetarian faire is sold along
with pastries and music. There are ethnic food served in a wide
variety of churches during food festivals, for example the Armenian
Apostolic church and the Antiochian Orthodox church have their own
food festivals during the year. What does the free kind of house of
worship food taste like? Usually, it’s pretty good, and donations
are encouraged. Some churches ask for a donation for the food. Some
offer it free, and others require a payment in advance to eat. Who
eats? Mostly members of the church and guests. Food is one way of
bringing people into the services where they might become members or
at least leave a donation during or after services or mass. Buddhist,
Hindu, and related services that have attendees from all types of
ethnic groups from anywhere, serve vegetarian food, usually Indian such
as curried vegetables or Ayurvedic-style foods–garbanzos, lentils,
rice, curries and home-made breads. A few years ago, Sacramento
State University (CSUS) gave away the most delicious free food,
Indian style and wrapped in little napkins with ribbons, at the
Ganesh festival featuring authentic Indian music and performances
of dance on stage. Is a church, synagogue, temple, or pagoda a good
place to eat lunch? It does provide a low-cost or even free meal or
snack, but really is meant for those that attended services in good
faith. Are guests welcome? Yes. Is there a contest for who serves
the best-tasting food? If you ask professional church-hoppers who
don’t favor one religion over the other but just come for the food
(not a good practice) they’ll tell you anonymously that the widest
variety of tasty food they can stuff their mouths with for free is
served at Mosaic Law synagogue after services on Saturday. But don’t
get any ideas to be a freeloader. A family each week sponsors the
food and pays for it. That’s right. Somebody foots the bill. But if
you are sincerely interested in joining one of the religious houses
of worship, regardless of denomination or faith, do you choose your
place of worship or freethinking based on the food served after the
services, mass, or meetings? Or do you brown bag your own food to
eat or share? Some clubs, social groups or professional association
meetings also offer food, usually as a potluck or catered. If a
meeting’s meal is catered, you pay your share for it. It’s worth a
study to find out who serves the best food in town at which price
or for free in exchange for attending what kind of services or
meetings. What do people think of free food crashers that go from
church to church or meeting to meeting just for the meal? You know
what they think. Usually those people who do the tastings circuit
show up each week at a different place. Who are they? Anyone, but a
small number are people who find it difficult to pay their own food
bills. Some are isolated, lonely, and haven’t been to any form of
entertainment outside their homes in decades. And some will find out
when weddings, bar mitzvahs, communions, or other events and parties
are being held and show up as a crasher pretending to be a guest. Do
they get away with it?

That depends whether or not they are recognized or whether they ever
visit the same place twice. Where do they go least of all? Usually,
they avoid places where donuts and coffee are given out (or sold)
after services and show up where full lunches are provided free to
people streaming out of a service by a different sponsoring family
each week who pays hundreds of dollars to underwrite a noon meal.

Then there are the families that donate food for meetings or arrange
pot lucks for various clubs that meet in people’s homes. But those
usually cost money for each guest. The interesting fact to realize
is how many different houses of worship or non worship meeting for a
few hours once a week offer food for guests and members, and how many
people actually show up for the sometimes free food after services.

A unique project for sociologists to study is what attracts guests
that do not belong to that particular religious or ethnic group to
show up for the free food after the services are over? Is it just
to eat? Could it be hunger, unemployment, or curiosity? Maybe it’s
isolation and lack of transportation to other places. Do people use
church food as entertainment? Some do attend the meeting or services
to try out a different church or religious house of worship each week
going from Catholic to Protestant churches, to Jewish synagogues,
to Buddhist and Hindu societies. Is there a pattern? What about the
demographics? Is it usually the isolated elderly person who is lonely,
low-income, and hungry, but well-dressed? The widow or emotionally
ignored retiree? It’s not the teenager or single young professional
doing the food hopping at various houses of worship going from one
group to another unrelated group. It’s usually the older person who
uses public transportation and travels very infrequently, lives
in areas that have no sidewalks, and finds travel is not usually
accessible to places far from his or her neighborhood. It’s related
to not having had a vacation in decades due to disability or lack
of money. And it’s done by people who usually have little access to
relatives nearby and most likely, no friends. Usually it’s the person
who hasn’t been to any form of entertainment outside his or her home
in years, doesn’t go out after sunset, and has very little fun or
access to entertainment. It’s not only the older person who shows
up at various churches for meals. And it’s not only the homeless or
unemployed. Food hopping is a choice of the lonely and the shy.

If you ask a food hopper why….the answer might be "because my spouse
only gives me very little for grocery allowance." But not many food
hoppers actually will be eager to be interviewed. That’s why this is
a project for sociologists to research. From the food perspective,
who serves the best free food to guests and members after a religious
service or freethinkers meeting? It’s the house of worship, whatever
religion or none that you choose, where a different family each week
underwrites the cost of the catered meal. And it’s expensive. If you
have to ask a question, it might be why some houses of worship serve
free food to guests and members? Feeding patrons for free can be
an act of random kindness that people want to pass forward by doing
another random act of kindness.

And why do the families that pay for the expensive, catered
food do it? What is their goal–personal satisfaction of helping
the particular house of worship? Raising funds? Attracting young
families to become members? What does food represent to them–love,
nourishment? Again, it’s a social issues project to study. How is
free food and worship related? Could it be Biblically-inspired as in
"feeding the masses?" The motive, again, is kindness.