As cooler weather ushers in harvest season, the Orangeville Food Bank wants the community to celebrate its bounty this weekend in an event called ‘The Feast of Longing’.
Executive director, Heather Hayes invites the community to whip up a traditional family dish, adorn dinner tables with fresh cut flowers and hopefully inspire people to remember those who don’t have enough.
Hayes encourages participants to send in photos of their feasts and recipes to the food bank.
The Feast of Longing is set for Saturday (Sept. 12).
More information can be found at orangevillefoodbank.org
Feast of Longing origins
Hailing from Manitoulin Island, Ethel Mulvany and her husband moved to Singapore during the Second World War, where he was posted as a military doctor and she worked as a Red Cross ambulance driver.
In 1942, Singapore fell to the Japanese and Mulvany was sent to an overcrowded prison.
To stave herself and others off from hunger, Mulvany organized imaginary ‘dinner parties’ in which she would encourage women in the prisons to write down and swap their recipes.
These ‘feasts’ served as a tool for survival.
With files from CBC