Food and Community: Rethink Food

Welcome to our Food and Community Series exploring how food - and the rituals around preparing and eating - are the building blocks for community formation, true emotional connection, and the backdrop for conversations that shape us.

This Guest Column, "The Power (and Privilege) of Good Food", comes from our friends Rethink Food - a US-based nonprofit working to create a more sustainable and equitable food system.

Rethink Food

The Power (and Privilege) of Good Food

Good food is key to building community - it is essential to life, laughter, love, and connection. Think about the times you’ve had celebratory get-togethers, or thoughtful late-night conversations, or met your significant other for a first date - was there a meal involved? Chances are the answer is a resounding ‘yes’. Beyond the everyday moments, food creates opportunities for us to engage the natural world, cultures, and heritages like few other things can. Food - whether at a neighborhood restaurant, or in a faraway country - can heighten our awareness and appreciation for ourselves and the diverse world around us.

At Rethink Food, a New York City-based nonprofit committed to the fight against food insecurity and waste, our team knows all too well the importance of good, nutritious food for not just nourishing people physically, but for also building emotional and sentimental connections. We also know that so many communities in our society lack access to this privilege and our team work every day to ensure that food-insecure populations in our city and beyond have the opportunity to share in the joy of nourishing, delicious food. Here, members of the Rethink team recall a few food stories of their own - ranging from favorite childhood memories built around a meal, to the communities formed through their commitment to fighting food insecurity.

“Good food is key to building community - it is essential to life, laughter, love, and connection”

— RETHINK FOOD

A Cherry-Filled Childhood

Raised in the Midwest state of Michigan, Sophie (Rethink’s Director of People) remembers making her way up to the north of the state with her family every summer to a town called Traverse City. Michigan is, very proudly, the self proclaimed ‘Cherry Capital’ of the world, and each year Traverse City hosts a huge Cherry Festival (aptly termed a cherry ‘bonanza’). The festival hosts everything from the expected cherry pie of all varieties, to cherry soda, elephant ears, candies, and much more, along with a number of creative, savory cherry-themed foods as well. Sophie recalls very fond memories of spending all day exploring the festival with her siblings, going on carnival rides, and eating until their stomachs hurt. When she was a kid, there was one cherry soda in particular that was her absolute favorite - it was tart and sweet at the same time, and so refreshing after a day in the warm summer sun. Now, even living in New York City, tasting something cherry-flavored still conjures up those same Midwest summer memories for Sophie.

The Finance Behind The Food

A numbers guy through and through, Christopher (Rethink’s Chief Financial Officer) was born and raised in Monroeville, Alabama. He moved to New York City in 2000 to pursue a career in financial services and it was his experience living in the melting pot of the Big Apple that provided first-hand awareness of the extent of food insecurity in the U.S.

Christopher began getting involved in a volunteer program with City Harvest, a local food rescue and support organization. With the onset of the pandemic in March 2020, Christopher recalls running the calculations in his head as he read about the unprecedented amount of New Yorkers applying for unemployment amidst the national shutdowns. He knew that food insecurity was already a major issue in the city and that it was only going to get a whole lot worse. The fight to end hunger has remained a passion for him, and that dedication ultimately led him to join Rethink where he found a community of team members with a shared vision and drive to address the immense challenge of food insecurity.

A Family Tradition

Karen (Rethink’s Director of Individual Giving) remembers working with her mom on her garden in Long Island, New York every summer, planting and growing a mixture of flowers and food. There was always a huge section of vegetables traditionally used in Korean cuisine which connected Karen with her family’s heritage. This included perilla, the famed minari (Korean watercress), purslane, red leaf lettuce, and spring onions. Every weekend Karen would visit her mom, she was greeted with a large bag full of a mix of these various garden greens, which Karen would eat in handfuls with fish or meat and rice. Sometimes she would mix it up with other salad greens, or fried it up in jeon (traditional Korean savory pancakes). Many of her happiest childhood memories were formed from these gardening experiences, and now these same types of memories are being passed down by Karen and her sisters to their own children every time they make visits out to grandma's Long Island sanctuary.

From Farming to Food Policy

Born and raised in a small town outside of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, Kathleen (Rethink’s Director of Policy and Planning) got her first taste of the food world in high school, when she landed a job at a local ice cream shop. Her love and appreciation for food would shape her academic and professional paths as she went on to attend the Culinary Institute of America with a focus on Food Studies and Italian Cuisine. While in school, Kathleen managed a student teaching garden, advocating for greater sustainability practices across the school’s campus and curriculums as well as for more food rescue in the teaching kitchens. Through this work, Kathleen’s eyes were opened to how we, as a society, devalue food so much that it is often more cost-effective to throw it away than to pay for the extra labor to properly handle it. These realizations led Kathleen to engage with food and food production in a number of ways, both professionally and personally -- from working at local farms to planning events in the hospitality industry. After joining Rethink, she went on to originate a role that engages governments, policymakers and civic institutions in reshaping the food system.

Food Insecurity First-Hand

Growing up in inner-city Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, Alphonse (Rethink’s Director of Partnerships) is the son of first-generation immigrants from Hong Kong. When his parents settled in Philadelphia in the 1970s, times were hard - he and his siblings knew what it was like to depend on the generosity of food banks and organizations committed to supporting those without access to dependable, nutritious food. During those rocky times, Alphonse still remembers when his parents would treat the whole family, once a month, to a dinner at a local Cantonese restaurant that served some of the best roast duck in the city. Braised in a blend of traditional Cantonese spices and sauces, he remembers the great memories and connections he shared with his family over these special and rare meals for the family. Even as adults, Alphonse and his siblings would still find time to return to that same restaurant for a meal from time to time, and catch up over the same savory childhood flavors. When Alphonse started working with Rethink, he knew first-hand the importance of providing families with opportunities to share these same sorts of memories over meals, no matter what their circumstances.

Dewberry Summers

During her childhood, Emily (Rethink’s Marketing Associate) would spend a month at her grandma's farm during each summer, which was about an hour outside of Houston, Texas. There, Emily would learn to pickle foods, make jams, and bake all types of things. Her favorite memory would be baking her grandma’s famous dewberry pie. Dewberries are, most notably, a sweeter version of blackberries, ones that she could easily pick along her grandma’s fence line and throw into a pie. To Emily, the greatest thing in the world would be when the pie would come out of the oven nice and warm and they would throw a scoop of Blue Bell's Homemade Vanilla Ice Cream on top. Blue Bell, a Texas-based ice cream brand, had a factory only a few minutes away from the family farm, so even the ice cream was the freshest of the fresh. In recent years, the sweltering heat waves in Texas have shortened the season and supply of dewberries, but Emily still keeps an eye out for them whenever she can, just so she can relive the experience of baking another sweet dewberry pie.

All of our individual relationships with food are complex, but at the end of the day they are mostly marked by the common threads of connection, community and appreciation. Many of us may not recognize it in the day-to-day, but food is essential to helping us all take a pause in our busy lives - to talk, to laugh, and to meet one another wherever we are (even virtually, in this pandemic-age). We hope these short memories from our team helped to conjure up some nostalgic moments for you, or maybe led you to think a bit more about the way food factors into your slice of the world. What’s more, we hope we inspired you to join us in ‘rethinking’ the food system and to take action to ensure that everyone has the same opportunities to enjoy a satisfying meal - whether by volunteering at a local food bank, sharing content on social media, or simply making a donation. Learn more about our work at www.rethinkfood.org and make a donation via VERO's Donate Now below!