Skip to content
  • About
  • Donate
  • Become a LVCer
  • 202-387-3222
  • Contact LVC

Lutheran Volunteer CorpsBuilding Community, Living Simply and Sustainably, Working for Justice

Primary Navigation Menu

Menu
  • About
    • The Program
      • Program Days
      • Serve In-Person or Virtually!
      • Partners
    • Mission & Values
    • Journey to an Inclusive Community
    • History
    • Board of Directors (2022)
      • Join the Board
    • Leadership Team
    • Join The Team
    • COVID-19 RESOURCES
    • Financial Reports
    • EVENTS
  • Fellowships
    • Start Here
    • Application & Matching Timeline
    • FAQ
    • Second Year Fellows
    • Participant Guide
    • Placement Positions
    • Seminary Interest
    • LVC CITY PAGES
  • Become a Placement
    • Start Here
    • Application & Matching Timeline
    • Placement Eligibility
    • FAQ
    • For Posting on Placement Job Boards
  • LVC Hike-a-Thon!
  • Diversity.Equity.Inclusion.Welcome!
  • Connect
    • Meet our 2022-23 Volunteers!
    • Alumni Hires
    • Support House Communities
    • NEWS & UPDATES
    • Blog
    • Resources
    • LVC Alumni
      • Alumni Scholarships
      • Facebook Groups
    • Contact LVC
  • Donate
    • How to Donate
    • Donor Appreciation Wall
    • Shauna Malone Memorial Scholarship

TAMVU, TAMEU, TAMWU!  Food and Community at Redeemer House

TAMVU, TAMEU, TAMWU!  Food and Community at Redeemer House

At National Orientation, our LVC leaders succeeded in preparing us for the challenges of communal living.  As a house, Redeemer spent hours considering our communication styles, our conflict resolution skills, and the goals and expectations we had for ourselves.  However, nothing could have prepared us for just how much fun we would have!

For cynical folks like me, this introduction may seem extremely canned and insincere.  Don’t get me wrong, like any LVC house we have ongoing debates, struggles, and conversations around how we want to live, where our priorities lie, and how to spend our money and time.  But I really must emphasize how much we like each other at Redeemer.

The main way we display this love for each other is through food.  As a house, we have committed to sharing three home-cooked meals a week.  We prioritize not just the shared experience of eating the food, but also cooking together and finding sustainable ways of obtaining food that also benefit our neighborhood.  For example, on Saturday mornings you can probably find at least three of us at a neighborhood farmers market or stocking up on free produce at a nearby food bank.  Our host congregation, Redeemer Lutheran Church, also provides a fantastic example in sustainable food practices. Redeemer has a community bread oven and a community garden, so it’s not unusual for us to enjoy some fresh wood-fired pizza or for Bex to come home from work at Redeemer with baskets of tomatoes, kale, and more.  

(In fact, we’re rolling in so many free vegetables, eggs, and watermelons that we’ve had to freeze a lot of it and stock it in our upstairs refrigerator.  In our quest to eat it all before it spoils, we’ve come up with a very simple motto — TAMVU, TAMEU, TAMWU! There’s always more veggies upstairs, there’s always more eggs upstairs, there’s always more watermelon upstairs.  These are fun acronyms to yell out when you’re looking for something to cook with; you should try it some time.)

Meanwhile, you might imagine cooking together is a great way to demonstrate service toward your fellow housemate.  Watching my housemates cook, however, is also a simple way to learn more about giving and taking in a community relationship.  Where I fail, my housemates are there to help me. If I don’t know how to brown beef, for instance, Theresa is there to assist me.  Isaac is incredible at making basically any breakfast food, Elshaday can fix a mean curry, and I’m still thinking about the egg bake Grace made for dinner one night.  (As for me, my specialty is keeping Redeemer House well-stocked with homemade chocolate chip cookies, fudge, soft pretzels, salted brownies, and more baked goods.) We all have the gifts that we use at our placements every day to connect with others and benefit the neighborhood, city, and world around us, but food preparation is an easily-overlooked way to get to know someone and how they experience the world.  It’s a privilege to be able to come together and experience that at least three times a week with my LVC housemates.

Thanks to the bonds we’ve built through the simple act of feeding ourselves, we’ve developed a tight-knit community that also keeps a list of our weird quotes on the fridge, is eagerly awaiting a free family portrait session at our local library, and is throwing an Earth Wind and Fire-themed party on September 21st.  We are able to engage in deep conversations while washing the dishes or watching Netflix, and we are fueled and ready to participate in LVC and live out its core values. Food makes the work of building community easier and more fun, and I am so glad we decided to prioritize it. As we settle into north Minneapolis and begin to lean into the spiritual, emotional, and physical work ahead of us, it’s relieving to know that the hard work of building community now is worth it and Redeemer House has a solid foundation supporting us.

Dylan Walker, a St. Olaf College alumnus, is serving this year at Redeemer Center for Life in Minneapolis, MN.

2018-09-20
By: Dylan Walker
On: September 20, 2018
In: Volunteer Blog
Tagged: Community, Minneapolis, St. Olaf College, Twin Cities, Volunteer
Previous Post: Eight Electric Volunteers, One Cozy Bloomingdale Home: Catch the Latest from the Bonhoeffer Burrow
Next Post: Junia: Two Programs, One Home

Donate Today!

Something is wrong.
Instagram token error.

lutheranvolunteercorps

Follow
Load More
Tweets by LVCorps

Recent News

Happy Holidays!

November 30, 2022 /

LVCer’s Immigration Service Continues Beyond the Service Year

April 19, 2022 /

LVC Staff

February 14, 2022 /

Meet Kabrina Bass

January 27, 2022 /

Volunteering at the MN Racial Justice Summit

November 29, 2021 /

Find a Story

Tags

alum Alumni Profile application Baltimore Bay Area Casa Romero Chicago Community community organizing Concordia College Cultivate Justice donor ELCA Food Justice fundraising Hillstrom House History Justice Just Speak Leader Letter LIFE in Service Living LVC Values Luther College Luther Place luther Seminary Milwaukee Minneapolis National Orientation Newsletter New Staff Omaha Protest Recipe retreat Seattle serve Tacoma Travel Twin Cities Vocation Formation Volunteer Volunteer Profile Volunteer Spotlight Washington DC Wilmington

Lutheran Volunteer Corps

1226 Vermont Ave NW
Washington, DC 20005
202-387-3222
operations@lutheranvolunteercorps.org

Follow Us on Facebook

Lutheran Volunteer Corps (LVC)

18 hours ago

Lutheran Volunteer Corps (LVC)
Praying for everyone affected. 🙏 ... See MoreSee Less

Photo

View on Facebook
· Share

Share on Facebook Share on Twitter Share on Linked In Share by Email

Lutheran Volunteer Corps (LVC)

1 week ago

Lutheran Volunteer Corps (LVC)

Quartet started 'just for fun' gets serious in national competitions

wp.stolaf.edu

The Hoyde Quartet, which features St. Olaf musicians Owen Cromwell ’23, Henry Paton ’22, Louis Dhoore ’23, and Grace Alexander ’23, has been a finalist in several national c...
View on Facebook
· Share

Share on Facebook Share on Twitter Share on Linked In Share by Email

Designed using Responsive Brix Child WordPress Theme. Powered by WordPress.