Most members of the Church I know (and some other Christians I know) take time out before eating meals to say a prayer. Generally, the prayer asks for God to bestow a blessing upon the food. Often the prayer will include elements not related to the food (bless the less fortunate, keep someone safe, etc).
These same people, at least from what I have witnessed, normally do not pray over snacks. This is interesting because sometimes the snacks they eat are the same amount of food they eat for some of their meals. For example, they may have some toast with peanut butter and jam for breakfast, and they may also have the same thing for a snack at some point. They may have a BLT sandwich for dinner, and a future snack may also be a BLT sandwich.
It would seem then that saying a food prayer doesn’t have anything to do with the amount of food one is eating. One would think it must be something about the way we formalise our meals that gives them the weight of requiring a prayer. Yet when we have friends over for a party (a more formal snack than one a single person enjoys), it is rare for a prayer to be said over the snacks.
So why do people say prayer over meals and not snacks?
In the last few years my dad has decided that instead of asking for the food to be “blessed” he just says a prayer of thanks for it.
As far as I know the average member of the church doesn’t actually consider the blessing on the food to do anything physically to it. Why then do people ask a blessing? Does the food somehow change spiritually when it’s blessed? I know from TV and movies that in the case of vampires blessed water… but I digress and think that being thankful for the food should be the most important part.
Good call on the thankfullness instead. My theory is that it comes from the exhortation to pray morning midday and night.