Highlights From Our Second Tasting Party!

So, the Second Tasting Party has come and gone now, but not without its fair share of challenges, memories, and cherished moments, which all together make for incredible highlights. I think the pictures above capture just how much work was put into to setting the entire event up. I soloed arranging the entire setup of tables and chairs up and squeezed lemons for more than an hour while Lucca put together two days of prep work together by cooking non-stop for a good four hours. And yet despite the challenges, we helped each other with logistics and worked together in the kitchen to get the food ready to serve for the tenants, representing what I would think is a point of maturity in my ability to coordinate and work well with Lucca under pressure and tight time constraints. Which means, as you can probably imagine, the teamwork is certainly coming in handy! If feel that while group work can notoriously have its ups and downs, some scenarios just necessitate acting as a cohesive unit with others, cheering your team members on, and giving constant feedback back and forth. This is one of the many definitions of “overcoming challenges” because there were so many barriers to our success that at times it almost felt like we’d run out of time to prepare or setup or what have you. It’s those moments where you feel the world is at odds with you but somehow you pull through that really become solidified in your head because you can say to yourself that yes, yes I can do this.

It’s that confidence that allows you to greet the Indwell tenants with a smile on your face and scoop a ladle of cabbage stew for your knowing full well that it was cooked to perfection and that no one on the team missed anything that would dampen the image of our work. And you know what, the tenants really enjoyed the food, they told us! Perhaps we could have provided wasabi for the sushi, for instance, but almost everyone expressed that they loved the taste of the food! Lucca does an incredible job with flavour and I believe that with the tenants’ feedback on his dishes, he’ll be able to cater to them better and provide a culinary experience like no other for them! And that’s all thanks to our increased comfort level around the tenants. They are people just like we are and as such this whole program has been a lesson in how to connect with people better. How do you become more down to Earth and understand people better and how do you find it in you do bring out the humanitarian in us all? Well, one way is to invite people to cook with you and eat the food you make together, being candid and transparent at every step of the way. Sounds a lot like the program we’re coordinating, huh? Perhaps not everyone will be so keen on doing a project like this because it requires the proper funds and time to dedicate to this, but this is proof that you can do similar things on a smaller scale and still have the same impact on people that we’re having.

This is a point I keep returning to: having an impact on people. When you see people enjoying food, which is already a love language on its own, and see people smiling because you actually show care about them and want to bring such a positive energy into their lives, they open up to you. And I don’t mean sharing all their personal details type of opening up, but I mean that they trust you more and have more faith in the people around them as a whole. I bet you that some of the tenants never even spoke to each other until they were in the same room learning how to cook plant-based meals with Chef Lucca and I. See? This program isn’t about veganism or promoting green policy, as much as it is a nod to that. Rather, it’s mainly about establishing a rapport between people in my eyes, and I think that’s one of the lenses you have to consider when observing this program.