Food For Thought

Until our new volunteer coordinator, Elisa Baker arrived, these little guys were the newest chicks on the block. We have our first Food For Thought second-generation chickens. One of our hens hatched three eggs nearly a month ago. At first they were tiny balls of fluff (they looked like marshmallows!), but now they’re starting to look a little more like their parents. They are Cochin chickens and will have big fluffy feet when they’re mature. Mom (below with her babies) is a black and white Cochin and dad is also a Cochin, but shiny and black.

However, Rachel and Doug, who are in charge of our garden, may be the proudest of all:

We thought our chickens were unusually friendly — they don’t mind being held — and describe them as the “poodles of chickens”, but have recently heard it’s a feature of the breed. Nonetheless, we think they’re pretty darned special.

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The FFT garden was all green and shiny a month ago, filled with young greens. Now, the pastel blooms of spring sweet peas and poppies have been replaced with the first faces of our vibrant sunflowers.

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It brings to mind this passage from Mary Oliver’s poem “The Sunflowers”

“…Come with me
to visit the sunflowers,
they are shy

but want to be friends;
they have wonderful stories
of when they were young -
the important weather,

the wandering crows.
Don’t be afraid
to ask them questions!”

By the way, Mary Oliver will be reading her work December 1, at the Wells Fargo Center for the Arts in Santa Rosa and tickets are still available!

Food For Thought has a wonderful fundraising cookbook, and now you can buy it right here on our website! It’s a fun and flavorful way to support the food bank. The book is full of recipes — actually more than 500 of them — ranging from the simple to the sublime.

Here’s a seasonal recipe from the book, to whet your appetite:

White Bean Salad with Shrimp and Asparagus

1 lb. asparagus, sliced into 1 inch pieces
1 lb. medium shrimp, peeled and deveined
1 tsp. freshly ground back pepper, divided
1 tsp. kosher salt, divided
1 1/2 tsp. vegetable oil
5 oz. torn spinach
2 (19 oz.) cans cannellini beans, drained and rinsed.
4 bacon slices
1/2 cup sliced green onions
2 garlic cloves, minced
1/2 cup chicken broth
2 Tbsp. chopped fresh parsley
4 Tbsp. fresh lemon juice
2 Tbsp. cider vinegar

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Cook or steam asparagus until tender-crisp. Drain and rinse with cold water. Sprinkle shrimp with 1/2 tsp. pepper and 1/2 tsp. salt. Heat oil in a medium non-stick skillet over medium-high heat. Add shrimp; saut 4 minutes; remove from pan, and place in a large bowl. Add asparagus, spinach, onions, and beans to shrimp; toss well.

Add bacon to pan; cook over medium heat until crisp. Remove bacon from pan; crumble. Reserve 1 Tbsp. drippings in pan. Add garlic; cook 3 minutes or until soft, stirring fequently. Remove from heat; add remaining pepper, salt, bacon, broth, and the remaining ingredients. Drizzle dressing over salad; toss to coat. Serve immediately.

This recipe was submitted to the Food For Thought Cookbook by food bank friend Patricia Willets. Thanks, Patricia!

We’re happy to announce that Elisa Baker has joined the Food For Thought family as our new volunteer manager. Here is her self-styled introduction:

“I am delighted to be here to carry on the work and fill the huge gap left by Stewart Scofield. I was lucky enough to know Stewart as a good friend and a mentor. Stewart and I were both from small towns in Indiana — Hoosiers –- and we were both trained as librarians with our masters degrees at UC-Berkeley. We also both turned 60 this year.

I have been volunteering with Face for Face for 20 years and began volunteering at Food for Thought six years ago and loved it. I always left feeling better than when I arrived. When I took a paying job as the volunteer coordinator at Canine Companions for Independence, I asked Stewart what he thought and he said the job had my name written all over it – he was right. I love this work! I feel like Stewart is looking over my shoulder and guiding my path here at Food for Thought and I look forward to carrying on his good work. The staff here at Food for Thought has all pulled together at this difficult time, but Allen Chivens has been instrumental in making this a smooth transition. Allen manages our antique store, but has taken time to manage the volunteer program since Stewart’s death, and train me.

I know some of you and am looking forward to meeting many more. As a volunteer manager, I’m used to asking, begging, and pleading for your time and talents. I believe that volunteers are the heart and soul of what we do, and we can’t do it without you. Please come by the office and say “hello” — to me and my “canine companion” Samir –- a large yellow labrador retriever who shares my life and my office. We are both eager to meet you.”

As part of our annual fundraising Calabash celebration, artist and FFT volunteer Nancy Tello has conducted a series of workshops, leading participants in creating a piece of gourd art in memory of a loved one.

This will be the eighth year we’ve held Calabash (this year’s festival will be held Sunday, October 5), and the fourth year of the Memorial Gourd Workshop. Classes will be Thursday evenings July 10,17, 24, 31 and then an additional closure session will be held (at a date yet to be announced). For further information please contact Rachel Gardner at Food For Thought, 707.887.1647, or by email, rachelg@fftfoodbank.org.

Recently, Nancy wrote about her experiences from the first workshop:

“The first year was such an amazing experience. Each person brought a picture of the person they wanted to memorialize. We called out each name before we started, then process began. Few of the participants had ever worked with gourds as an art medium, but this was not your typical art project. Photos, shells, anything that was a reminder of the person was incorporated into the gourd. We all shared experiences about the people we were honoring. There were tears, laughter, hugs, and so much support. There were some participants, who until that time, hadn’t allowed themselves to feel the grief of their loss. Through all of this we recognized we had a common cause — to honor a special person in our lives. Here are a few quotes from people in that class:

“I thought I had worked through my grief about my dear friend, but this class helped direct my feelings even more. It brought joy for me to see something permanent in honoring our relationship; it also helped me through the turmoil that I was feeling due to my recent diagnosis of my own HIV status. I felt such a sense of comradery and support from each person in the class.” - Ron

” I appreciated taking the class with my mother, both of us making a gourd, we sat and spent time talking about my brother, and our relationship with him. Sharing with others in the class about him made me feel so supported. Knowing that I was not alone in my feelings was such a comfort, it helped me to appreciate my brother and to celebrate his life.” - Elaine

“My partner was the first to pass away in our group of friends, it was all so new, and no one knew what was happening. There was no support, no understanding at all, so it was very difficult to go through. I took the first memorial gourd workshop and it was there I found the support I had needed to finally accept and move on with my grief.” - Jim

So it’s time for the call to go out again. If you’d like to honor someone you know who has died of AIDS, come take the workshop. You’ll find a safe, supportive, loving place for your creative expression.