Food For Thought

Camp Mealtime Nourishes More Than Just The Body

By Zeb Ramsbotham

Zeb Ramsbotham graduated from Appalachian State University with a masters degree in Appalachian Studies and a concentration in sustainability in Appalachia. Zeb was part of the full-time staff at Falling Creek Camp from 2019-2022 as head of the F.A.R.M. program, trail manager, and helped with community outreach.

I’d like to tell you a bit about my favorite activity at Falling Creek Camp. Although I love the F.A.R.M. program and I’m an activity leader there—that isn’t it. Although I love everything about the fun and intensity of mountain biking—that isn’t it. In fact, my favorite activity requires no sign up, but it’s on the schedule three times a day (and everyone is enrolled automatically). It’s likely the most resource-intensive activity of the day and requires over 140 activity leaders to make it run smoothly. The programming is super high caliber and it’s never let me down.

Any guesses yet?

My favorite activity at Falling Creek Camp is mealtime.

There’s a rhythmic magic to the whole process of mealtime which I find fascinating. Campers are called with the ringing of the bell, and suddenly they come flying out of the woods, thundering up the trails, and sprinting down the gravel roads. The Dining Hall comes to life much like a beehive on a warm summer day, as campers swarm around the building, buzzing to get in. As campers congregate outside, staff head inside to help get tables set and food put out. Of course, long before that first bell rings, the kitchen staff has been hard at work, making delicious food with love and ensuring there will be plenty for everyone.

Suddenly the bell rings a second time and the doors are thrown open to allow the swarm of campers to work their way into the building. With homing instincts similar to that of honeybees, they soon find their tables and begin to settle in for the coming meal. As the buzzing dies down, a Director comes to the front of the room to lead the mealtime blessing. When it ends, campers take a seat at their tables or grab their plates and head to the front of the dining hall for salad (or yogurt and oatmeal at breakfast) and maybe a substitute for a dietary requirement.

Back at the tables, conversations are alive with campers and counselors talking excitedly about their day. They chat about what they’re looking forward to, how the day has been, or even something as specific as describing their favorite “Magic The Gathering” card. Whether campers or counselors realize it, these moments are some of the most important of the day. Each mealtime shared together offers the chance to have a positive influence on those around us, and to check in on others to see how everyone is doing.

When Falling Creek was first founded in 1969, the average family dinner in any given household was 90 minutes long. Families cherished mealtimes together. In the decades that followed, shared meals became shorter and less frequent, with families eating about a third less of their meals together over the past two decades. By 2010, the average family mealtime was found to be just 18 minutes, a fifth of the time it was previously. However, one silver lining of the Covid-19 pandemic was an increase in time spent together around the dinner table, as the benefits of daily shared meals were once again realized.

Research conducted by The Family Dinner Project (based at Massachusetts General Hospital’s Psychiatry Academy), in collaboration with Making Caring Common, suggested that family dinner times increased for more than 50% of American families after 2020. As a result, families reported feeling more connected, laughing more, and feeling more grateful. Thankfully here at camp, we have continued to enjoy all of our meals together in our cabin “families”, with the frequency and high quality of shared meals remaining a priority throughout the decades.

Why Mealtime Matters

We eat three meals together every day at camp, but even just having three or more family-style meals each week can have great benefits to a child’s physical health, academic success, and mental health. At camp, we consider something as mundane as eating as another programming opportunity to aid in the growth of our campers and staff. We’re strengthening relationships when we converse face-to-face and build connections, but that’s not the only benefit.

Discussions at mealtime lead to vast educational opportunities involving cultural exchange, learning from each other’s experiences, reinforcing shared values, practicing good manners, and even learning new vocabulary. Yet another benefit is that we are more likely to make healthier food choices when we eat together. Not only are we nourishing our bodies when we eat food together, we are nourishing our minds and spirits as well.

Indeed, the Dining Hall at camp goes above and beyond the dictionary definition of: “a large room where meals are served at school, college, etc.” The importance of this building goes far beyond that of a large room in which we serve food. Instead, it is one of the many key components that contribute to strengthening the purposeful community built at camp.

Mealtime in the Dining Hall gives us the needed time and space to share stories, laugh together, ask questions, nurture friendships, show we care, and exchange culture, all while enjoying nutritious food three times a day. Operating safely under Covid19 protocols in 2021 meant the addition of an outdoor Dining Tent to expand our eating space, allowing us to continue eating in our cabin “family” groups. However, this made the return to the Dining Hall in 2022 even better, as we had missed the camaraderie of shared mealtimes all together as a community.

In The Hobbit, JRR Tolkien summed all of this up in much simpler terms when he wrote: “If more of us valued food and cheer and song above hoarded gold, it would be a merrier world.” We certainly live in a merrier world here at Falling Creek.