THOUGHTS FOR FOOD

"A man seldom thinks with more earnestness of anything than he does of his dinner."

 Samuel Johnson (1709-1784) British author

Many things may be considered food, but a meal is something else entirely. A meal takes disparate flavors, colors and textures and pulls them together with love.  A meal is something you look forward to and something you remember fondly.  A meal feeds the soul.  Making a meal for a strangers takes a leap of faith.  We don't know food preferences, histories or cultures.  We don't know that Ms. B from Berwyn had chicken three times this week and really doesn't want to eat it again no matter how tasty we think our recipe is.  We have guests who rave and guests who recoil, although our goal is to have the former far outweigh the latter.  We've come to learn that taste buds are as diverse as the reasons that bring people to a shelter community.

Along the way we've realized that this endeavor is worthy of more contemplation than simply composing a menu.  There are many things that motivate us to do things for others; what motivates us to make such a personal gesture toward strangers?  Each meal surrounds us with questions of hospitality, sincerity and respect, and at certain points we stop to ask, "Is this doing anything for anyone?"  Can something as temporal as dinner enter in to a context filled with uncertainty, disappointment and poverty and illicit peace, enjoyment and a sense of well-being, even if for just a meal?  And at the end of the day, both figuratively and literally, does it matter if it's mac 'n cheese or mahi mahi?

So far, we're not sure if there's a definitive answer.  There are certain people we get to know who are expressive and open in their dialogue with us.  They talk about diet and health and what their mother's cooked for them when they were young.  They are a pleasure to cook for and foodtalk becomes the means through which we develop a relationship.  We know they are happier after dinner than before, and that gives everything meaning.  But there are many more who are quiet, or even withdrawn, who we see once and then never see again.  They may never smile and they may not finish dinner.  These are the people who compel us to ask, "Did this meal provide anything more than calories for them? In the end, we have to cook for both groups of people and everyone in between with as much respect and consideration as is possible in this complex context.  And in lieu of having any definitive answers, we just decide to think instead with as much earnestness about a stranger's dinner as we do of our own.  We collect some of those thoughts in the first post of each month called Thoughts for Food.