We’re all looking for rest, connection, and belonging.
We’ll find it around the table.
Edible Theology is a nonprofit developing resources for use in the church and in the home.
At the heart of everything we do, you’ll find a desire to bring people together around the table.
As we tell food stories, both global and personal, theological and practical, we’ll find the healing, rest, and joy our souls crave.
Maybe you want to heal your personal relationship to food, your body, and the Body of Christ.
Maybe you’re a small group leader looking for a curriculum that pairs well with dinner.
Maybe you’re trying to find a way to tie your everyday needs to sacred rhythms.
Maybe you’re a pastor desperate for a tool to encourage your weary congregants.
Maybe you want a better way to engage difficult topics with family, neighbors, and friends.
We create resources to help you do just that.
Our Mission
We foster connection through stories about food, shared around the table. This creates spaces where everyone can be known, valued, and loved—by God and by each other.
Our Values
COMMUNITY — We believe that individual growth is meant to help us understand ourselves in relation to others: our families, our faith congregations, our neighborhoods, and the global community of faith. We are deeply formed by relationships, and our end goal is to strengthen them through time in the kitchen and around the table.
CURIOSITY — We believe that the table fosters a sense of curiosity about food, history, and traditions — especially those different from our own. As we feed the curiosity of our audience about meaningful meals, we are also inviting them to cultivate curiosity about deeper things, from religious traditions to individual people who may not see the world the way we do.
HONESTY — We believe that the path to real community is paved by telling honest stories about who we are, where we come from, and what we believe. When we’re honest about both the beauty and the pain of our own family history, faith tradition, and inner lives, we’re able to disagree well with others and build community even when our differences come to light.
JOY — We believe that while moving deeper into community inevitably involves conflict, moving through conflict into healing inevitably brings joy. Even as we unpack serious topics around the table, we think it’s possible for all of our endeavors to be undergirded by joy.
EXPANSION — We believe that cultivating these values in our own lives causes them to overflow into our communities as well, making relationships richer and social structures more stable. We use tools from within the Christian tradition to accomplish this overflow, but we want to offer this kind of relational growth to those inside and outside of our own faith community.
What others have said about the Edible Theology Project:
“Kendall reminds us that when we return to the table, we can experience a powerful revival of friendship, love of creation, and an awakening of worship.”
“In a world where fast food and overcrowded schedules are a way of life, Edible Theology’s invitation to slow down and consider all that is brought to us and all that God does through food and fellowship is much needed counter-cultural hospitality.”
“Kendall brings together her unique combination of culinary talent, anthropological observation, and passion for scripture to give us an inspiring picture of what is possible when Christians eat together.”
The Edible Theology Story
Like crafting a loaf of bread, the Edible Theology Project has grown through a series of mixes, rests, and rises. In 2018, our founder, Kendall Vanderslice, started a newsletter to share her research on the theology of bread and her work in food studies. After the release of her first book We Will Feast in 2019, she began speaking in churches, colleges, and universities about the importance of building embodied community around the table. When the world shut down in 2020, she began to question how her research on food and the table might speak to the deep isolation of the moment and also provide a path towards healing in the years ahead.
Enter: the Edible Theology Project.
In late 2020, Kendall closed her bakery and dove into creating food and faith resources for individuals, families, and churches, empowering them to address their spiritual hunger through physical meals around the table. In the years since, she’s crafted curriculums, hosted bread baking workshops, and launched a podcast and a digital community. In early 2022, the Edible Theology Project incorporated as a nonprofit and built a small team, along with gathering a board of church leaders, business people, and experts in development. In the coming years, we are eager to continue our research, building resources that examine the ways the kitchen and the table can build community, foster thoughtful dialogue, and bring healing in the church and in the world.
Kendall Vanderslice, founder
Kendall Vanderslice is a baker, writer, and public theologian.
A graduate of Duke Divinity School (Master of Theological Studies), Boston University (MLA Gastronomy), and Wheaton College (BA Anthropology), she has committed her life to the study of food and community formation.
Kendall is a professionally trained baker, having learned from several top American pastry chefs. In 2018, she was named a James Beard Foundation national scholar for her work bridging food and religion.
She is the author of We Will Feast: Rethinking Dinner, Worship, and the Community of God and By Bread Alone: A Baker’s Reflections on Hunger, Longing, and the Goodness of God.
She speaks regularly at churches, colleges, and universities around North America. Her writing appears in Christianity Today, Christian Century, Faith & Leadership, and Religion News Service.
Curriculum Developers
Emily Thompsen
Lisa Hammerschaimb
Linnae Himsl Peterson
Podcast Producer
Jason Rugg
The Edible Theology Board
Doug Vanderslice, CFO Boston Children’s Hospital
Jerusalem Greer, Staff Officer for Evangelism for the Episcopal Church
Kayla Peck Hopgood, Director of Development for Oasis Ministries for Spiritual Direction
Margarita Diaz Lutz, women’s ministry facilitator at Trinity Presbyterian Church in San Juan, Puerto Rico