How does someone eat like a Mennonite? Find out when Marlene Epp, a professor from the University of Waterloo in Ontario, presents a talk on Mennonites and food, focusing on what food traditions tell us about faith and culture. She will speak on Thursday, Oct. 2, at 7 p.m. at the Young Center for Anabaptist and Pietist Studies, 450 Campus Road, Elizabethtown.

Epp, a Mennonite historian, is the author of "Eating Like a Mennonite: Food and Community Across Borders."

"The book is about the role of food in religious group identity, ritual and service, drawing on her research in Canada, the Democratic Republic of Congo, India, Mexico and Paraguay," said Steven Nolt, director of the Young Center and a history professor at the college. He noted that at her talk, Epp will discuss the role of foodways in Anabaptist communities, past and present, and highlight the complex intersection of religion and culture in a global context.

"For example, food and what people eat becomes a part of how they think about themselves as they immigrate from one continent or country to another and how they talk about their history," he explained. "For religious communities, food is also central to service - people collect money for food relief or ship food to areas experiencing famine as part of their sense of extending compassion to others. In the Christian tradition, eating and drinking is woven into the rituals of communion, and in the Brethren tradition, the Love Feast includes an entire, albeit simple, meal."

Churches often compile and sell cookbooks as fundraisers, he said, but their contents also tell us a lot about how church members live day to day and what they value.

"There is also a gendered dynamic to a lot of foodways, insofar as serving church meals was often one way that women took an active part in planning church activities," Nolt said, noting that these are themes found in Epp's book, although she might not discuss them all at her talk.

He also noted that the title of Epp's book is a playful one.

"Epp doesn't literally mean that there is a unique Mennonite way of eating," he said. "Rather, she once saw a newspaper article that referred to 'eating like a Mennonite' and it made her wonder what the writer meant, and the questions it provoked sent her down a path of studying food and faith communities."

Reading the book raised a bunch of interesting questions for Nolt, focused on history and community that traditional history routes don't often address.

"Eating is part of our everyday existence and a core part of anyone's culture," he said. "Thinking about food and how we eat is an important part of understanding any community, and in that regard, Epp and her book have a lot to say about any community, not just Mennonites. Mennonites may be her primary case examples, but the kinds of issues she looks at are part of every community and group. Her comparative international examples highlight that."

The Young Center invited Epp to speak after her book earned the Dale Brown Book Award, given by the center to the best book in Anabaptist or Pietist Studies published in the last three years. The Young Center is a scholarly research and interpretive center at Elizabethtown College that fosters the study and understanding of ideas and groups stemming from the Anabaptist and Pietist religious traditions of the Church of the Brethren and related groups.

"The center has been around for almost 40 years - we were started in 1986 - and we hold educational events and exhibits, provide internship opportunities for students, engage in research, host visiting scholars from around the country and world and more," Nolt said.

For the first time in 10 years, the Young Center will host a community field trip this fall as well, traveling to Gettysburg to learn about the experience of Brethren families during the Civil War battle there. The field trip will be held on Saturday, Oct. 18, from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. The day will begin at Gettysburg Church of the Brethren with a presentation by historian Steve Longenecker.

"Portions of the battlefield in 1863 were Brethren farms south and west of the village of Gettysburg," Nolt said. "We will also visit the historic Marsh Creek Brethren Meetinghouse that still stands on the edge of the battlefield."

Participants will also tour Seminary Ridge Museum, learning about the battle's impact on civilians, churches and the wider community.

There is a charge to participate in the field trip, and the fee includes lunch and the museum entrance fee. People are encouraged to carpool to Gettysburg for the event. A free bus will depart from the Young Center parking lot at 8:30 a.m. Registration for the field trip and for the bus is due by Monday, Oct. 13. To register, visit http://www.etown.edu/youngctr/events or call the Young Center at 717-361-1470.

Reservations are not required for Epp's talk at the Young Center. Parking is available in a lot along Campus Road.