First CoFED family dinner
Last night marked the beginning of the 10-day fellowship retreat I’ve been planning for the Cooperative Food Empowerment Directive (CoFED). After two-and-a-half months of planning and collaboration, it was time for CoFED’s five young and rad regional organizers to gather in Berkeley for an immersive training in cooperative models, food justice and the new economy.
I hopped BART in San Francisco right after work yesterday to get to Berkeley in time to lead a 6 p.m. workshop on work styles, flexing and influence, all of which I learned through my New Sector summer fellowship program. I thought this workshop would be appropriate given that these new ROs have never worked together or with student groups before, yet they’ll soon be expected to do both. My goal was to help them understand that everyone has different preferences for how they like to work and be worked with; and how understanding this and being conscious of ourselves makes for healthier working relationships.
We all had some organic bonding time exploring in the Castro House, which is a cooperative housing facility on Prospect Street in Berkeley. It can accommodate upwards of 50 people and has a huge industrial kitchen, which is where we cooked our first community dinner.
For this retreat, one of my major responsibilities was soliciting food donations to feed the ROs and facilitating staff daily. With 8 full days and 2 half days to consider, we were looking at about 28 meals and usually 10 mouths to feed each time. I put my skills to the test and was able to pull in donations enough to supply the whole week - at zero expense to us, and with a little wiggle room left on the $250 credit we got to Rainbow Grocery, my favorite worker-owned grocery store I've visited thus far.
From the mix of generously donated food, our delicious dinner consisted of vegan and chipotle cheddar sausages; kale, caramelized onion and tomato salad; fresh baked bread; organic strawberries and red wine to top it off.
Before digging in, we all went around and shared what we were thankful for - both in regards to the food and one another. I was grateful to see before me the food I had asked for, generously received and help prepare; for the first time, food symbolized the incredible amount of community support this group has behind it. I've never conceptualized that with my own food before. I was grateful to know that we were able to mix together and unite different ingredients to nourish our bodies (and our minds with that knowledge).
Something about that night also reminded me of when I was in Morocco, spending hours in conversation around the dinner table and having food bring us together. Last night, we all went around and shared bits and pieces about our families. It was one of those conversation topics people normally whip through in a matter of seconds - baby brother, older sister, 2 cats, pops, step-mom - but we spent more than an hour talking about how much we admire the people who have been with us from day one and continually shape who we are today.
By the end of this retreat, I hope we meet our collective goal of equipping the ROs with the skills, tools, connections and resources they need to teach college students how to launch cooperative food models on their campuses. Personally, I hope to come away with new friendships, stronger connections to the food I eat, a deeper understanding of cooperative models, and greater inspiration to change my daily consumption habits to ones that are more just for the earth and the plants, animals and people living on it.
And, of course, having eaten a copious amount of scrumptious, wholesome, healthy, sustainable and just food.
