Confronting Hunger and Poverty With a Simple Meal Day

On her lunch tray, a sister sets down a bowl of steamy tomato soup next to a small salad and slice of bread. It’s a simple meal day for Holy Cross sisters at the motherhouse in Notre Dame, Indiana. And the practice, like its name, could not be more simple. 

• Once a week, sisters enjoy a simple meal.
• The difference in cost between the simple meal and a regular meal is collected into a fund.
• Sisters use the fund to support people facing poverty and hunger in the local community.

Serving people in poverty

The tradition, says Sister M. Timothea (Kingston), CSC, chair of the Simple Meal Committee, likely reaches back to the 1960s. Sisters who were no longer able to go out to volunteer in the community — but still longed to serve God’s people — launched the idea.  

At its very heart, the initiative embodies the sisters’ mission of responding to needs where and as they arise. By addressing food insecurity on their doorstep, the sisters honor the Gospel and their vocational call while helping to fill bellies and other needs.  

Connecting with service agencies

The Simple Meal Committee receives funding requests through sisters who act as liaisons for local organizations seeking support. Only tax-exempt organizations may apply, and fund disbursements typically range from $200 to $500. One Simple Meal Fund recipient, a women’s day center in South Bend, provides respite to women and children experiencing homelessness and other struggles. It also offers food, toiletries, showers and other services.

Support has also been directed to local soup kitchens and a hydroponic farm. The latter provides training and jobs for adults on the autism spectrum and supplies produce for a local food pantry and the Indiana Food Bank. And still other beneficiaries assist individuals with AIDS, those re-entering society post-incarceration, and young people learning how to de-escalate conflict.  

Affirming the dignity of each person

Through this support, says Sister Timothea, the sisters “hope that people experience a renewed sense of self-worth and dignity.” Qualities every person possesses by their very nature. “We are not only concerned with physical needs but the needs of the spirit and the heart as well,” she says.

And in that regard, this simple meal, now so engrained in the sisters’ lifestyles, serves them well too. It nourishes gratitude for gifts great and small. And it regularly brings into focus the world’s inequalities, particularly the daily reality for people facing hunger and food insecurity.

But it’s the experience of a simple meal, Sister Timothea says, that moves one beyond mere mindfulness. In the practice of partaking in a simple meal, the sisters join friends, neighbors and strangers at the table.