Thank you for sharing this adventure with us.
Here are a few things we've learned in the past three weeks:
1) If you leave sugar in a pot on the stove and return after watching an episode of That 70s Show, it will have magically turned into caramel
2) Pasta must be taken out of the pot of hot water in order to be enjoyable........(edible)
3) Cooking is a team sport
4) You should cook bulgur before trying to eat it
5) Gazpacho only gets more delicious the longer you leave it in the fridge
6) Grills are hot (and, as Jamie discovered, should not be touched)
7) There is nothing better on the planet than sugar and butter on top of puff pastry
8) There is nothing more addictive than sugar and butter on top of puff pastry
9) There is nothing (anymore) that I want to eat other than sugar and butter on top of puff pastry
10) Putting a piece of bread in your mouth while you're dicing onions doesn't stop the tears, especially when people start mercilessly making fun of you for having a piece of bread in your mouth
11) Garbanzo beans and chickpeas are the same thing. So you don't need to wander helplessly around the grocery store wondering why there are no chickpeas in America
12) Chocolate cake - flour = chocolate pudding. It's not too hard to go gluten free for a single day
Lessons from working at Martha's Table, our local food pantry:
1) There is such a thing as too much matzo
2) Even if 8 people agree that the van is broken down, it may just be sleeping. It's inevitable that you will look like a fool when somebody rescues you by fixing the "broken down" van by turning the key in the ignition
3) Make friends with the chef --> get free food
4) It's harder than you think to eat your way out of a food pantry when you're locked in
5) **Disclaimer: earth-shattering realization*** It is possible to get sick of pie
We loved our experience working at Martha's Table because it showed us that it is possible - and necessary - to build relationships through food not only with friends and family, but also co-workers, volunteers, and clients. Only through these person to person relationships can we create the awareness, empathy, and knowledge necessary to alleviate hunger. During this project, we, Jamie and Caroline, grappled with the fact that we could simply waltz into Whole Foods and buy the groceries we needed with the swipe of a credit card, but 1 in 6 Americans struggles with hunger on a daily basis. We realized how precious food is - it keeps us alive, helps us show our friends and family that we care about them, and ties us to our heritage - but also how incredibly divisive it is: unequal distribution of food affects everybody in the United States in some way. Thankfully, organizations including Martha's Table make it their mission to redistribute food so that more Americans can be healthy, well-fed, and happy. We'd like to thank the staff at Martha's Table, all of the volunteers we met, the clients who opened our eyes to our own insane privilege. We no longer take good food for granted and we owe that to this experience and the people who made it so valuable!
Thanks for reading!
Love from the kitchen,
Caroline and Jamie
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