If Tables Could Talk

A friend saw the line “every meal has a story” in a local grocery store. How true! It made me think of special meals in my life; not all banquets or even holidays, but significant meals. I thought of all my cooking mistakes as a young bride – I didn’t know you had to cook the rice before making rice pudding – honest. Meals shared while passing a newborn baby around the table – they always wake up when you sit down to dinner. Or more recently the first time my granddaughter made me scrambled eggs all by herself.

My dining room table has accommodated family birthday parties, Thanksgiving, Christmas and Easter feasts for 25 years; through highchair and teen years and now with three generations. The stories it could tell – menus straight out of Grandma’s ancient Betty Crocker Cookbook as well as the current issue of Southern Living.

I expect most of our client’s tables would tell a different story than mine. Perhaps holidays and birthdays when there wasn’t enough to go around, or even special occasions missed because there was nothing to prepare. One of my most poignant memories of working at Loaves & Fishes is the voice message left one morning. A young woman’s voice told how it was her son’s 5th birthday and she had no cake for him, until she came to a Loaves & Fishes pantry and was given a week’s supply of food, including one very precious cake mix.

One theme to all the stories would be the pure joy of sharing food with family and friends. One of the most important things that Loaves & Fishes does is provide food for people to take home and prepare for their families. Hopefully enough to nourish and to share.

What kind of stories would your table tell?