On Thanksgiving week, my weekly tale about my imbedded Season of Sharing reporting from within the Fort Bragg Food Bank simply had to be about the food itself — and giving thanks. I”m truly thankful that four years ago when I was assigned this series, I made the offhand decision to actually apply to be a client, try the victuals myself and talk to everybody possible.
Since I started my annual culinary reportage adventure, I have learned to savor the brown rice that the Food Bank tries to give to every client. I now truly seek ugly vegetables and very juicy fruits with anticipation. My crockpot makes these rejected treats work together to create a symphony of flavors, one beloved the world around. The Russian version is borscht, the French ratatouille, the Japanese Oden and the English make stew.
These delicious dishes evolved in cultures who never dreamed of having the wealth, the refrigeration or the pesticides to demand only flawless fruits and vegetables. Today, vegetables that aren”t exactly the same shape or color as those on TV end up rejected by society and its stores. Rejected are potatoes too big or funny shaped, pears shaped like turnips and apples with bumps or worm holes.
Society”s demand for foods as perfect looking as its celebrities is a big blessing to food banks, but a curse to those producing the healthiest, freshest and most local produce. Perfect appearing foods may have gotten that way with the help of scary pesticides.
What clients say
Over the years, I”ve found the regular clients have as much fun with the grub as I do. What about this year? To avoid repetition or bias in who gets interviewed, I decided to talk to the first five people I met, no matter who they were, and report it here.
First was a well-known former businesswoman who towed two grocery carts brimming with food up the sidewalk, giving me a smile and the message, “I”m picking up food for three people today.”
She also made it clear she wasn”t keen on being in the article by name.
Over the years I have met a surprising number of people who once owned businesses or held important jobs. A lack of health insurance was often the factor that pushed the person into the realm of needing the food bank.
The next person I saw was Noelle Wooden, who was loading her car for several people she provides care for. We agreed not to use their names, although they likely wouldn”t mind.
One is a former professional rodeo rider, another a tree faller; all were people who worked hard all their lives and now are homebound and diabetic senior citizens.
Wooden was thrilled that with the help of a volunteer who also knows the need, she had located sugar-free foods for her clients.
“These are people who worked hard, very, very hard. Now they truly depend on the food bank for existence but much of the food has sugar. It”s rare to find good, low calorie foods like this,” she said.
The Food Bank staff and volunteers plan to give away the ingredients for balanced meals in the weekly bags. But the gifted food is so varied, so haphazard at times, that the Food Bank is a hybrid between a garage sale and a grocery store.
I”ve sampled some puzzling high dollar gourmet delicacies, such as fine Italian capers or even a can of English spotted dick (suet pudding). I”ve acquired a taste for fancy Greek yogurts, gotten foods too expensive for me at the store and found some foodstuffs well past the expiration dates.
I”ve found chocolate fondue in tinfoil, canned tofu hotdogs, and rich and delicious birthday cake boxed into single pieces by Harvest Market — somebody must have ordered and forgotten to pick up.
Special foods and times are arranged for seniors, but the rest of the clients plan their one weekly visit carefully.
“I think Wednesday is best, that”s when the truck comes,” said Wooden.
The next person I met was a tall, thin man who said he was homeless and looking for work. I had never seen him before, despite my daily visits. He was eager to talk until he found out I was a reporter, and then hurried away, saying “don”t use my name.”
Next, I entered the busy, busy line inside the Food Bank. While we waited for our turn, I interviewed transplanted Alaskans Byron and Esther Brociows who have been using the Food Bank since they arrived in Fort Bragg in June. They said it would be wrong to criticize any of the food.
“It”s all delicious; sometimes you have to eat it that day,” said Esther. “I”ve gotten some great food here, and with a little imagination, made some great meals.”
The couple was forced to leave the frozen north due to health issues.
“This is a great community. We hope to be here for a long time,” said Byron.
Plenty is a relative notion
When I was a little boy my grandmother Bessie Ernst, who was an elementary school teacher, told me how pharaohs in ancient Egypt ate at dinner tables laden with flavors and aromas that were the marvel of the ancient world. Then she popped that bubble of wonder with the news that the average American had all that to choose from and 100 times more at virtually every grocery store.
Yet, it never seems enough to make us happy. No matter how much we have, we need more. When I was a reporter for the Appeal-Democrat in Yuba City, I covered the historic and seemingly endless demise of the canned foods industry, which began in the 1960s, when Americans began turning up their noses at all canned foods. As we devour the world”s resources, we are still too good for canned foods, which would cut down greatly on waste and provide jobs to the Central Valley.
During the 1990s, Americans became accustomed to an appalling level of consumption and waste. People talk about the looming hard times as the end of the world. We won”t survive with less, they say. But eating at the Fort Bragg Food Bank has made me realize we can do with so much less and still eat like kings.
Fit for royalty
However, this week the makings of the first of two truly kingly meals is provided to clients. Thanks to a massive, community wide effort, Food Bank clients get a meal fit for even a modern queen at Thanksgiving and again at Christmas.
Each client starts off with a bag of canned and dried foods, including stuffing, gravy, green beans or peas, yams, corn and cranberry sauce. Next was cranberry juice, loaves of bread, big sweet potatoes, a bunch of celery, a bag of apples, a big bag of potatoes and then, a huge turkey. Nothing given on these special days is beyond fresh or requires much imagination to make a fantastic meal.
The Food Bank”s “head chef,” Yukie Holland, is delighted by the challenge to the imagination she is presented every day when she makes lunch for all the volunteers and staff. She gets the leftovers of the leftovers. Although the Food Bank acquired more than 10 tons of chickens, Holland has yet to get one for the lunches. The chickens are deemed crucial to the needs of clients.
Yet, she gets a fantastic array of goodies, from fresh strawberries to tasty but dusty ginger root. Discarded Halloween pumpkins meant a splendid array of soups, homestyle curry and desserts.
“Sometimes when we have leftovers here that nobody can eat, I take them home and give them to the birds,” said Holland. “I just hate to see food go to waste.”
The biggest shopping day of the year at the Fort Bragg Food Bank has traditionally been the day before Thanksgiving, not the day after.
Season of Sharing
This series goes hand in glove with the Advocate-News” and The Mendocino Beacon”s annual Season of Sharing fund drive for the Food Bank. The goal is to give the Food Bank money it can use year-round, not just during the holidays.
Last year, $21,890.29 was donated, which brought the total raised since our first fund drive in 1995 to $185,890.
The nonprofit Community Foundation of Mendocino County administers the Season of Sharing free of charge as a courtesy to the newspapers. Every cent taken in by the newspapers goes to the Food Bank.
Checks should be made out to the Community Foundation of Mendocino County (CFMC), and mailed to the newspaper at P.O. Box 1188, Fort Bragg, 95437, or dropped off at 450 N. Franklin St. If you have any questions, call us at 964-5642.
The fundraiser runs through Dec. 31. Donors” names are printed each week, unless they ask to remain anonymous.
As of Monday, donations totaled $1,575. With the Food Bank, we thank Winston and Rebecca Bowen, Charles Lee in memory of Jean, Mel and Susan McKinney, In memory of Nonie and Fred Grass, Cameron Fox, Patricia D. Campbell and one anonymous donor.
