Significance of food?

By the end of the novel, Catherine Grace realizes that Ringgold has always been a place of comfort and safety to her. One of the ways the town is always providing comfort and support is through food. Particularly because this story is set in the South, the characters use cooking as a means of supporting their neighbors and showing love in hard situations. There are literally dozens of mentions of food in the novel: the baptisms, the tea parties, the proms, the funeral, and even just spending the day in a friend's house is cause to fire up the oven or fry up some bacon. This delightful quirk of the characters adds to the pastoral feel of the story.