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The GoodLetter Thursday, April 4, 2002
GoodThings, Inc. :: Stories, actions, ideas, and greeting cards that connect us.
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This Week's Feature
Food, Glorious Food
How sharing slow, savory meals and meandering conversations with friends, colleagues, and family could very well save the world.
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Dear GoodLetter readers,
I feel confident saying that in our neighborhood, we've got the best, freshest, friendliest taqueria around. There's usually a line of folks out the door intent on packing the restaurant's tiny tables and cramped but charming counter overlooking the street. I relish my all-too-frequent visits to this cozy spot, but I'm sad to say that it rarely has anything to do with my desire to linger over the food or the atmosphere or a conversation with a friend or colleague. I can tell you that I just ran downstairs to order my customary mid-day veggie burrito which, as always, I had every intention of swallowing whole. I've just gulped my way through another solo lunch break prominently featuring extremely fast (although delicious) food, and I've been remembering a recent conversation.
A good friend of mine is European and spends a lot of time jetting back and forth across the Atlantic. She was lamenting to me that a quiet, slow-paced airport restaurant she cherished had unceremoniously closed. She remembered it as a place where she could actually enjoy the fact that she was now finding herself at the airport -- in full post-September 11 mode -- two long hours before flights, savoring both food and companionship. Its soft chairs, relaxing atmosphere, and menu full of the very best kinds of so-called "comfort" food made the place seem like a relic in an airport otherwise laden with swirling food courts and impatient travelers. That it seemed like it belonged to another time was made plain by a fading sign she'd noticed on her most recent trip: "After 30 years of service, the airport restaurant lounge had to close. We apologize for any inconvenience this may have caused you." Indeed. To hear my friend tell it, doomed now to Cinnabons and Subways, she'll skip the airport altogether next time and take a boat.
In essence, with my friend's story, the hyper-accelerated quest for convenience had prevailed. A more appropriate sign might have read: "We apologize for any lack of personal connection this may have caused you" or "We apologize for not being able to continue giving you a humane place to sit peacefully and have a conversation and share a meal with someone." Her story really put in perspective all that sharing food in a slow, measured way can mean for how we live our lives. Don't get me wrong -- I'm not pining for some romanticized vision of pseudo-simpler, bygone days. But it does seem as though the benefits of sitting down at a common table with other people over food are something we take woefully for granted.
I've had food on the brain a lot these days. I was invited to the town of Duncan, British Columbia, Canada in Vancouver Island's beautiful Cowichan Valley to talk to a group of folks about what we've been doing at GoodThings. Every month or so, a small community-based non-profit known as CAKE (for Community Acts of Kindness Endeavors) invites someone in to speak about refreshing examples of constructive and progressive actions going on in the world. The goal is to give people in their town of 4,500 an opportunity to engage in efforts to make a difference and, frankly, to debunk the myth that people in small towns prefer to look inward rather than consider issues of global significance. What makes these gatherings truly extraordinary, though, is that food is central. Tables are pushed together to create what amounts to one gargantuan platter covered with plenty of food to share. The idea behind this extended and surely splendid table is to maximize opportunities for people to talk to each other. Food has a way of enlivening and invigorating the occasion, and I was convinced, after I'd finished my talk, that the quality of the questions people asked was directly proportional to their delight over the quality of the food and fellowship. I was truly thrilled to have been a part of the earnest aims of the people who spearhead CAKE, and I was touched by their warm hospitality. Theirs is a model that should inspire people in small towns and large, who yearn for a community of people motivated by common progressive causes and issues and crave an effective way to bring those people together. If you'll pardon the pun, CAKE is, no doubt, having its cake and eating it, too.
Much has been made of the idea of so-called "slow food" with its roots in the culinary traditions of Italy. It has a lot in common with both what my friend misses about her now-extinct airport restaurant and what the folks in Duncan are trying to do with their common-table community gatherings. And with the buzz that's surrounded books like Eric Schlosser's hamburger-and-fries exposé, Fast Food Nation, the Slow Food movement (with its manifesto that includes the admonition, "We are enslaved by speed") has a serious head of steam. In a nutshell, slow food isn't fast food. I suppose that isn't to say that fast food -- in certain contexts -- can't be slow food, but the opposite is definitely not true. Slow food is predicated on the basic notion that when we allow ourselves the time to eat, wonderful things happen. First of all, we enjoy the food we eat so much more. We're also healthier and happier because we're more relaxed. Most importantly, though, we give ourselves the chance to know each other -- and the things we can accomplish together -- better.
One thing I failed to mention about how the folks in Duncan, BC use food to build community. Their invited speaker has the honor of being able to choose a single local charity to donate the proceeds of the event's ticket sales. I haven't sent them my vote yet, but wouldn't you know it -- fat and happy after lunch and committed to the idea that next time I'm sharing my burrito experience with a chatty friend, I'm picking the community food bank.
Bon appetit,
Wood Turner
Editor/Publisher, GoodThings, Inc.
Wood would love to convince you that the secret of a perfect burrito is in the beans.
Click here for his favorite goodthings.
(Thoughts on this GoodLetter? Inspired by what you've read? E-mail us -- don't forget to tell us your name, where you're from, and if we can use your words in a future GoodLetter or on our Web site.)
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Favorite GoodThings 2001 Spotlight
Each week, we use this space to remind you about the extraordinary work of one of our Favorite GoodThings 2001 campaign honorees. The profiles of our honorees -- a wealth of ideas, actions, and organizations for a better world -- have a special home on our Web site. Check them out and be sure to let us know what you think.
This week, in keeping with this week's GoodLetter about how food can help us remember who we truly are, we're happy to feature our "Favorite Recipe for Fighting Hunger":
DC Central Kitchen
"Waste is wrong -- be it food, money or the potential for productive lives." That's the premise behind DC Central Kitchen, a community non-profit in Washington DC. How does the organization make strides in preventing waste? By recovering unused food from local restaurants and food service institutions, DC Central Kitchen converts donated food into balanced meals to feed children and adults at local social service centers throughout DC, Virginia, and Maryland. And the group also offers valuable food service training to prepare unemployed and homeless adults for careers in the food service industry. The end result: 3,000 meals per day plus hundreds of newly minted culinary professionals, equals less waste and more potential.
:: Learn more about DC Central Kitchen.
We love to hear from you about anything: ideas or situations that are inspiring you or challenging you to think, as well as organizations, programs, and people that contribute to your community and the world everyday. Please drop us a line.
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The Upshot
Inspired by how sharing a meal with friends, family, and colleagues can foster creative thinking about living life more constructively and passionately? Consider making the logical move from the dinner table to the world table, and educate yourself about organizations and people dedicated to fighting hunger and establishing food security and local self-reliance around the globe. If any of the following "goodthings" strikes a chord with you, take the next step and get involved!
:: World Hunger Program
:: World Hunger Year
:: Women's Bean Project
:: Second Harvest
:: Canadian food banks
:: The Carter Center
:: Individual activism
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Good Gravy
Take a minute to click through to our Web site to see what we're reading, watching, and listening to and, while you're at it, let us know what we're missing!
Books
Great Food Book! Home Cooking Laurie Colwin (1988). Here's a "cookbook" that's more about the joy of sharing food with loved ones than it is about recipes. Read the review.
Movies
Great Food Movie! Big Night (1996). This funny and acclaimed film will make you dream of the glories of food and the deep human connections it can foster. Read the review.
Music
Great New Music!
Carry Me Across the Mountain Dan Tyminski (2001).
Grateful Dawg Jerry Garcia and David Grisman (2001).
Two recommendations -- one featuring the main voice behind a celebrated movie, the other featuring voices from a recent documentary -- have a lot more than films in common. Read the reviews.
GoodThings on Public Radio
Have you been checking out GoodThings on Public Radio? Here are some of our favorite public radio pieces this week (follow the link below to the full summaries on our Web site):
:: Thailand's Positive Reality Radio -- This country's most popular radio show, called "Let's Get Together and Help Each Other," has millions pondering the power of community.
:: The "Accidental Ethicist" -- What's the difference between right and wrong? Let the New York Times' Randy Cohen help you chuckle about the dilemma.
:: The Benevolent Monarch -- The death of Britain's Queen Mother has many reflecting upon her response to an event during World War II where she became just like everybody else.
:: "New Day" for Afghans -- As Afghans around the world celebrate their traditional new year, they're more aware than ever of what it means to be free.
:: Voices of Youth -- The perspectives of teenagers on either side of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict make it clear that peace is the only answer.
:: Water of Life -- For Turkey's Omar Faruk Tekbilek, the Middle East is one big family and his music, an example of the kind of glue that can hold it together.
:: The Art of Medicine -- A doctor considers the lost art of teaching in medical education and what it means for patients.
Visit our site to read full summaries of these stories and listen to your favorites.
By the way, GoodThings on Public Radio will be taking next week off, but will return on April 18.
Talk to us:
What's the best public radio story you've heard this week?
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