Country Life Restaurants

Country Life Restaurants are a series of facilities started by members of the Seventh-day Adventist Church to provide food and education to the communities at large in which they operate. “In 1966 the first Country Life Restaurant opened its doors in Grand Rapids, Michigan.”[1] This quote comes from the Country Life Vegetarian Cookbook which goes on to say: “Today [1970s] the 15 Country Life Restaurants, though all independently owned and staffed by Seventh-day Adventists (SDA) share a common commitment to serve delicious, wholesome, 100 percent vegetarian food. They are also dedicated to furnishing educational programs, to ministering to the needs of the community, and to providing a relaxed, Christian atmosphere as a refuge for customers from the stresses of the work-a-day world.”

History

Country Life Restaurants may be considered one of many Seventh-day Adventist independent ministries.[2] It's unknown how the name “Country Life” was chosen, but the original [SDA] restaurant (in Grand Rapids [MI])was first called Lifeline.[3] The restaurants were an attempt to implement the counsel of Ellen Gould White(1827–1915), a prolific author and an American Christian pioneer. She emphasized the relation of physical health to spirituality, and advocated a vegan or plant-based diet.[4] She wrote: “... hygienic restaurants are to be established in the cities ... the patrons can be invited to lectures on the science of health ...”[5]
Country Life Restaurants continued to multiply in the U.S. and other countries through the remaining years of the 20th century despite there never being any unifying organization.
Ellen Gould White envisioned her restaurants to address the need for advocacy and guidance for plant-based nutrition. In the 20th century, Country Life Restaurants were created and proliferated as a resource to meet that need. In the first decades of the 21st century, other resources are proliferating - text media by many secular authors such as the Campbells;[6] films such as Forks Over Knives; and organizations such as Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine.

Present day

Currently (2015) there are Country Lives in Columbus GA; Keene NH; Marsielle France;[7] and four in Prague, Czech Republic.

References

  1. ↑ Fleming, Diana J. ed. Country Life Vegetarian Cookbook. Sunfield, MI: Family Health Publications. One edition of this book contains a list of the addresses and phone numbers of 15 County Life restaurants (10 in the USA, 3 in Europe, and 2 in East Asia)
  2. ↑ http://www.outpost-ministries.com
  3. ↑ Grabiner, Steven, President of Outpost Centers International, private email, August 2015
  4. ↑ Ministry of Healing (1905) p.295
  5. ↑ The Health Food Ministry (1970) A compilation of the writings of Ellen Gould White, p. 15 retrieved 12/2014 from http://text.egwwritings.org/publicationtoc.php?bookCode=HFM}
  6. ↑ T. Colin Campbell and Thomas M. Campbell II, The China Study (2005); Whole: Rethinking the Science of Nutrition (2014) by T. Colin Campbell and Howard Jacobson; The Campbell Plan (2015) by Thomas M. Campbell II
  7. ↑ http://www.nytimes.com/1988/08/03/garden/in-paris-vegetarians-find-life-after-bifteck.html

External links

  1. Czech Republic http://www.outpostcenters.org/ministry/country-life-prague/
  2. Czech Republic http://www.countrylife.cz/
  3. France http://www.countrylife-marseille.com
  4. Georgia http://www.ucheepines.org/health/country-life/
  5. New Hampshire http://www.countryliferestaurant.com/
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