Since we are all at different places in our journey regarding dietary laws and to insure we will all be able to have table fellowship with clear consciences, we have provided some helpful guidelines below to take into consideration:

1) Please only bring Biblically clean meats (see Lev. 11); that of course includes no products containing pork, shellfish, or catfish. The typical meats most of us eat are beef, chicken, turkey, deer, and once in a while, bison (no one has brought any lamb, goat or giraffe yet).

2) There are some folks who only eat meat that has a kosher certification. So if they pass by your dish, please don’t be offended.

3) We do not typically separate meat and dairy, but we will clearly label food items. If there are any questions, please feel free to ask us.

4) A sneaky ingredient that renders a product unclean is gelatin. Gelatin is found in, of course, Jell-O® gelatin, marshmallows, yogurts and some cereals. Check the list of ingredients if you suspect gelatin. Some products do use kosher gelatin.

5) Kosher Symbols (Hechsher)–this is the best way to know that what you bring won’t contain anything unclean. Look for a kosher symbol on the product, which usually consists of a stylized K. The common ones in our area are: Circle K, Circle U and Star-K. A plain K is not a valid symbol–companies just put that on there to make you think it’s kosher. To see a list of all the USA kosher symbols, click here.

Thank you for your consideration in these matters!