by Toby Mommsen
Excited about a cookbook? Not me… until Robert sent me this one he co-wrote.
Inspired young couples dreamed up this pizza shop like no other. Its mission was to bring neighbors together in Norwood, Ohio. Delight in working together, sharing of many kinds, and spontaneous community blossomed.
It took me a while to wrap my head around Moriah Pie.
I was in Cincinnati on business, and took the chance to visit Robert & Erin Lockridge and their circle of friends that I’d known from a distance as the Norwood Collective. It was April 2019.
“How’s that? A ‘pay as you can’ restaurant, open one afternoon a week, supplied from urban gardens grown by volunteers? Does this add up?”
But that’s the wrong question: It thrived from 2012 until 2020, and embodied a new economy built on Kingdom values. We might mourn its closing after 8 years, but inspiration is still alive: New expressions of the Vision will unfold.
It was Sunday evening, potluck night, so I got to meet the whole group in a home down the street. I’d been offered a room for the night, and breakfast at the Speckled Bird Café, home to Moriah Pie. We had an evening of poetry reading—a novel way to make two dozen new friends. I’ve wanted to get back to continue the conversations ever since.
This Spring, planning another trip in Ohio, I called Robert again. There was much to catch up on from his community and mine. They’d closed Moriah Pie, but surprise: Both he and we have just published a beautiful hardcover book to share the story of our community. Each of us offered to give each other a copy. Both books are not-to-miss!
The Moriah Pie Cookbook is one-of-a-kind. Gorgeous color photos make nearly every page a visual feast. They’re interspersed with short essays telling the story of this band of friends over the past ten years, and yes, real recipes too. There are too many great morsels to quote them all, but this one is important. It’s chalked on a blackboard above the counter:
Robert writes, “These words offer an interpretive lens for understanding the bedrock motivation behind Moriah Pie, and they served as a signpost to those of us who embraced this work. For me, they carried an even deeper meaning…”
“At some thoughts one stands perplexed - especially at the sight of men's sin - and wonders whether one should use force or humble love. Always decide to use humble love. If you resolve on that, once and for all, you may subdue the whole world. Loving humility is marvelously strong, the strongest of all things, and there is nothing else like it.”
― Fyodor Dostoyevsky in The Brothers Karamazov
Here is part of Erin Lockridge’s 2015 piece “Is This Pizza Free?”
It’s on page 32.
Word on the street is that this is the place for "free pizza." We want to clarify. At Moriah Pie, we do not name prices. Instead of a bill, we will give you an envelope, into which you place your payment.
We depend on the money you put in the envelopes to pay our workers, make the rent, pay for a food license, buy our groceries and gardening supplies, and cover our personal living expenses.
We don't name prices because we want everyone to be able to have a meal at Moriah Pie, no matter how much they can pay. We want you to decide the cost of the pizza and to give as you are able.
We are often taught that "cheap is better" and cost is considered a bad thing. But we have learned through running Moriah Pie that for something to be costly is actually for it to be valuable. “Costly" doesn't always mean that it has a high price tag. Instead, it means that it is important to us.
We do ask that you consider the value of this food, and of this place of community and friendship, and offer something costly back.
Here is something to think about: the food on your plate tonight began as seeds in our spare bedroom last February. For almost an entire year, we have been working to grow, tend, water, harvest, preserve, and prepare the meal in front of you. Through countless hours of work, we have sought to honor you, this community, and God's creation. Far from being free, this pizza is actually quite costly!
We challenge you to give of yourself in return. We don't ask for you to put any specific amount in the envelope, but we DO ask that you consider the value of the food in front of you and of this place of community and friendship, and offer something costly back. We believe that this is the way we all become truly rich.
Ways you can "pay" at Moriah Pie:
· Put money in the envelope.
· Volunteer your time in the kitchen or the gardens.
· Grow some produce in your own garden and contribute it to Moriah Pie. Compost your kitchen scraps and coffee grounds and contribute it to the Moriah Pie gardens.
· Gather leaves this fall for the Moriah Pie gardens.
· Rake a neighbor's leaves or offer to help them in some other way.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~
Isn’t that Kingdom economy? “Offer to help them in some other way.” This story is not over.
The Cookbook’s many beautiful stories capture the surprising ways God’s provision and redemption flowed through Moriah Pie and its people. I keep picking it up for another serving.
The cookbook itself is offered on a “pay as you can” basis. You can support the Norwood friends with a generous prepayment of your choice.
UPDATE: Robert writes “We’re now running a three days a week, pay-as-you-can, neighborhood-grown breakfast cafe, that we're calling "For the Life of the World Café..."
Toby Mommsen and his wife Johanna live at Platte Clove Bruderhof in upstate New York
