The holidays are the time of year to gather with friends and family, to celebrate one another, our communities, and also to remember loved ones who have passed.
This week, I found myself reminiscing about my grandmother, Ellen. Her fierce defense of those less fortunate, gentle-but-firm hand and ability to make the best fried chicken while telling stories about our kinfolk are still very much alive in my heart. She was a significant influence during my formative years, instilling in me the strong sense of food justice that inspires the work I do today at Project Open Hand.
I spent many summers during junior high and high school at Grandmother’s home in West Texas, arriving for my “vacation” on a bus from Austin. We’d start our days with an early breakfast, then head to the fields to pick black-eyed peas. We spend the entire day in the hot sun picking peas, pulling them from dusty, wiry bush vines, putting them into buckets, then heading back home to shell and bag them.
Not much grows in the West Texas dirt, which was sapped of rich nutrients by oil drilling and is always “drier than dirt” with constant drought. But miraculously those peas kept growing year after year, and it always felt like somehow we would be okay.
I’m sure the labor wasn’t as hard as I remember, but there was definitely no down time. My grandmother was loving and kind, but had no patience for idle hands. After just a few weeks, we’d end up with bags and bags of frozen black eyed peas - an entire freezer full.
“How on earth are we going to eat all these?” I asked that first summer.
I still remember Grandmother’s vigorous reply, “We don’t need much. Send some to family, and the rest we take to the church for those less fortunate. Everyone deserves a proper meal!”
This has been my world for as long as I can remember: make the most of what we have and share what we can to help others. Today at Project Open Hand, we take care to thoroughly utilize all of the precious resources given to us by volunteers, donors and partners, working diligently to make sure elderly neighbors and sick clients have a “proper meal.” My grandmother would be proud. Then, of course, she would ask me what more I could be doing to help others.
Thank you for your continued generous support of Project Open Hand. We appreciate all of your contributions and please know that whatever you are able to share makes a difference in helping our neighbors get a proper meal.
Happy holidays!
Help keep Project Open Hand cooking during the holidays and all year long by making a donation now.