Press
Release - for Immediate Release
Date:
13 September 2004
Religious
leaders gather for lunch during British Food Fortnight
to discuss food as a means of improving inter
faith understanding
On 20th September, during the
first week of British Food Fortnight, leading
figures from the nine major faiths in the UK will
dine together at the House of Commons. Rabbi Lionel
Blue, Dr Zaki Badawi, Indarjit Singh MBE, Dr Atul
Shah and Nitin Mehta OBE will be among those attending
the launch of faithandfood.com
; a website that will describe what, why and where
people can eat in accordance to their faiths.
Simon Cohen, editor of the website,
says: “Inter faith eating is a simple
and social means of exploring each other’s
lives and beliefs. Food plays an important role
in every faith tradition. Whether this is manifested
in feasting, fasting or in some other ways, it
is clear that food is not simply a necessity for
survival, but a shared passion. This lunch is
a paradigm for how the power of food may be harnessed
to improve understanding and empathy between people
of different faiths.”
Alexia Robinson, organiser of
British Food Fortnight, says: “Food
is a great vehicle for understanding different
cultures and religions. So much of our knowledge
of different peoples comes from food. Few of us
have travelled to China or India yet a Chinese
or Indian take-away is part of our lives. It is
fitting that religious leaders have chosen British
Food Fortnight, which takes place during this
country’s traditional harvest festival celebrations,
as a time to discuss food as a means of achieving
greater understanding between the faiths.”
-- Ends --
Notes to editors
- All
press are invited to attend the press conference
that precedes the buffet reception at 11am.
Rabbi Lionel Blue and others will take part.
The press conference will take place in the
Jubilee Room, which can be accessed by the St
Stephen’s entrance to the House of Commons.
- For
further information about the lunch and about
faithandfood.com please contact: Simon Cohen,
Director of Tolerance Limited on 07745740013
or simon@tolerancelimited.com
- Further
details about Tolerance Limited from www.tolerancelimited.com
- For
further details about British Food Fortnight
visit www.britishfoodfortnight.co.uk
or Tel: 020 7840 9292
