The Kitchen Conversations project is off to a great start, with three “Story Kitchen” events held this fall.
September 19th: We partnered with Village Gardens to prepare and share a meal in the Seeds of Harmony outdoor kitchen, featuring tomatoes, peppers, kale and more that attendees harvested on the spot. Jane shared a moving story about her special bean pot that she used to make beans for the event, and how pleased the potter, Rodolfo, would be to know how it’s being used to feed and connect people.
October 28th: Seniors and youth came together at the Hollywood Senior Center to cook and connect across generations. Renee and Silvia shared about their experiences living on the Indian subcontinent, including the wide variety of foods and flavors. We prepared momos, chickpea flatbread, and a spicy Nepali salad that even our youngest participants were a big fan of.
December 1st: La Cocina Comunitaria de Cully held its third annual tamale party,which included a new adventure of dessert tamales alongside a variety of savory delicacies, plus the perennial favorite of the kids recipe team: ginger molasses cookies. Guille, Lucia, and others shared their tamale stories and reflected on how each of the different communities they come from has its own special version.
At each event, after we had cooked together and sat down to our meal, everyone went around and had the opportunity to respond to the question:“What’s a food, recipe, experience, or memory around food that tells something meaningful for you?”
Join Us In Cooking Up Stories: Ways to Get Involved
Community Cooks: We have two more Story Kitchen events in the works that you can be a part of: Belize Street Food at the Leaven Community Kitchen on January 19th, 3-6pm (RSVP to leaven@kitchencommons.net) and our final Story Kitchen in partnership with Trash for Peace some time later in the spring. Then, we plan to hold two bigger Kitchen Conversation events, tentatively May and September.
Storytellers: Such a wide variety of beautiful, challenging, and intriguing story snippets have already emerged from our sharing circles so far! We will be following up with people who are interested in further developing their story and leading a group of people in preparing an associated recipe at one of the Kitchen Conversations. If you have an idea for a food story and recipe, you’re invited to reach out to jane@kitchencommons.net.
Volunteers: All of the events can use dedicated volunteers for set up, clean up, photography, child care, outreach, ingredient procurement..you name it! Contact volunteer@kitchencommons.net.
Kitchen Conversations Coordinator: We have an opportunity for an experienced event coordinator/facilitator to take a leadership role in planning each of Kitchen Conversations and receive a stipend. Read more here.
Stone Soup Supporters: This project is generously funded by Oregon Humanities, and we’re also seeking additional support in order to fully execute our plans, including the second Kitchen Conversation. You can pitch into the soup pot here, help to plan a restaurant percent of sales donation night, or bring other fundraising ideas to the table: katie@kitchencommons.net.
Farmers, Gardeners, Chefs: Perhaps you made note of that restaurant percent of sales night idea above, and you in fact are connected to a restaurant! Or, you might be a local farmer or gardener anticipating produce available in May that could be featured at our first Kitchen Conversation. Contact jocelyn@kitchencommons.net to chat about opportunities to collaborate and foster connections with local food resources.
