At this year’s Food and Society conference Carlo Petrini implored the attendants to slow down their food experience, and become co-producers with the people who grow our food. I left his talk energized to cook my own meals, and host dinner parties of people I didn’t know, uniting people around food.

Then I returned to work. I saw people eating lunch at their desks, or bringing their laptops to the lunch table. While I understood that there was always more to do than there was time to do it in, it saddened me to see, even in an organization that cared so deeply about food, people struggling to take time to appreciate every meal.

My sadness is increased by the knowledge of what a wonderful experience lunchtime at The Food Project can be. Two weeks or so ago was Molly’s last day, and to celebrate, everyone in the Lincoln office had lunch together. It was amazing.

Pertula made delicious chicken, there was a team effort to make some rice and beans, the Ag (Farm) staff brought pita pizza’s, and I, somewhat ashamedly, brought fries (mostly because I know Pertula loves them and I wanted to thank her for making chicken).

We all packed ourselves in around the big table and ate our lunch. While some folks were only able to sit for 20 minutes, even that short amount of time seemed special. I left that lunch energized and ready to work for the rest of the afternoon.

While that was a unique event, with a particularly large number of people, I believe that we would actually be more productive if we all took 30 minutes out of our workday to sit and enjoy food and co-workers. I think that eating meals in that way is energizing and refocusing and can propel us through the rest of the day.

I think the best we can do is to carry on the spirit of Don Zasada, the former farm manager here at TFP, who every lunchtime would travel the office, inviting everyone to join him. When he had rounded up as many folks as possible, he would inquire after everyone’s lunch with a caring “whatchu got goin’ on over there”. I’ll do my best to carry this on wherever I am, and I hope that you all do the same.