Special to WJW 

Barbecues at the Silver Spring Moishe House are nothing unusual. The five 20-something Moishe House residents regularly host friends, neighbors and others throughout the cookout season for get-togethers that are more than just gorge-athons. Each is also a Jewish-themed presentation with an important lesson to teach.

On this steamy Sunday afternoon, the theme was social justice ‹ at least as it applies to food. More than 70 guests filled the front and backyard of the four-story Mississippi Avenue home, to enjoy a side order of gastronomic stewardship with their hamburgers, peaches and corn-on-the-cob. Moishe House residents dubbed it a "food justice" barbecue.

Required to plan seven to 10 Jewish-themed events a month ‹ in exchange for reduced rent ‹ the Silver Spring Moishe House residents received grant money from the Jewish Community Relations Council to organize this particular mouthwatering social justice event. (Moishe House is a collection of homes throughout the world that serve as focal points for the young adult Jewish community.)

"Food justice," explained resident Aaron Lawee, 26, is being "mindful of the food I'm eating and the impact of being a food consumer" and having "respect for the environment, the workers and the animals."

The menu included standard barbecue fare ‹ but with a local, sustainable twist. (Sustainable agriculture generally implies that extra consideration is given to the social, economic and environmental conditions surrounding food production.)

The hamburger meat for the event was provided by Kol Foods, a local, kosher, nonindustrial meat supplier. Hamburger buns, chips and seltzer were purchased from the nearby Takoma Silver Spring food co-op and the ripe (and very fresh) fruits and vegetables were picked at neighborhood farmers' markets, sourced from seven regional farms in Maryland, Pennsylvania and Virginia. 

An educational program was woven into the afternoon's proceedings as representatives from several Jewish social justice organizations addressed the guests.

Standing on a chair in the middle of the Moishe House backyard, Kol Foods' founder, Devora Kimelman-Block, 38, spoke of her "Jewish journey shoveling manure in Baltimore" before launching her company nearly a year ago.

After struggling for years to find grass-fed, kosher meat for her own family, she said the company's goal is "to put kashrut and ethics on the same table." In addition to offering meat from grass-fed, humanely treated cattle and lambs, she announced that the company was now offering pastured poultry ‹ chickens raised in fields and free of antibiotics.

Also addressing the group were Jacob Feinspan, executive director of Jews United For Justice, and Jessie Posilikin, program officer from the American Jewish World Service-Avodah project.

Feinspan urged the group to consider the conditions farm workers labor under, and he handed out a "credit card tallit" ‹ a paper sleeve for a credit card with printed questions asking if an impending purchase was made with fair labor practices and environmentally preferable materials.

Posilikin reminded the group that "all issues of food justice are interconnected," and he urged the listeners to think "how to live your life differently."

After the talks, the learning continued. Guests broke into smaller groups for informal Jewish text study on farming and agricultural issues and the "Jewish imperative" of gleaning. Lindsey Paige Savoie, 33, of Silver Spring, the director of the Jewish environmental group Shomrei Adamah, instructed the participants on the basics of composting.

Moishe House resident Zvi Bellin, 29, asked guests to try to refrain from throwing anything away from the barbecue. The residents would "as best we can," he said, recycle everything by composting the food waste, for example, and washing and reusing the plates, cups and cutlery.

The diligence of the young Moishe House residents impressed their neighbor, Stephan Sylvan, 45. Sylvan decided to come to the barbecue with his wife and 5-year-old daughter because of his wife's interest in the sustainable food movement, he said. "It's a great concept," said Sylvan. "And there's a lot more going on at the local level with sustainable agriculture than I realized."  

Ryan Mlynarczyk, 33, a documentary filmmaker from San Francisco, agreed. Mlynarczyk was in town as part of a 12,000-mile bicycle journey during which he intends to visit 100 sustainable-living communities across the country. For his filming, he decided to "check out what the Moishe House is doing."

"The power of the movement is here ‹ with Jews embracing sustainability," observed Mlynarczyk. But, he added, "You can't do it on your own. You have to gather the forces." 

And that, it seems, is exactly what the Moishe House residents were trying to impart on Sunday with a backyard barbecue and a little "food justice."