Nourish Me. Nourish My Community.: Strengthening A Community To Feed A Community

Millions of years ago, our Homo habilis ancestors came together to share fruits and nuts. Over 30,000 years ago, humans began making bread, and the concept of “breaking bread”, symbolizing community and belonging, became a mainstay of almost every world culture. The offering of bread is a welcoming gesture, and its acceptance signifies fellowship. While breaking bread together is potent, making bread together? Fuhgeddaboudit. As with The Wash Out and The Make Out, two event series I've concepted and launched to strengthen The Lay Out community, Nourish Me. Nourish My Community, does that through food.

One of my fondest memories from my video game industry days in the Bay were the cooking school nights at Tante Marie organized by Amy Lovelace while she was at GameSpot. Despite our gaming gripes, we bonded over skewers and shared kitchen chaos. Fast forward to November 2022, I found myself with Asmeret Berhe-Lumax , cooking for One Love Community Fridge , the non-profit she founded during the pandemic which works to connect, empower & engage the community through education and providing access to fresh, healthy food with dignity and without stigma. Strangers turned friends, we fought food insecurity, making meals of pan-fried fish, cilantro rice, pickled onions, and roasted sweet potatoes to stock the community fridges. These two seemingly random parts of my life collided into one idea.

Since 2021, The Lay Out has backed One Love Community Fridge, starting with Jason Rosario and BBDO's sponsorship of our Juneteenth 2021 event, where half of the sponsorship dollars went to One Love. Since then, we've hosted a free produce market during each Juneteenth celebration, catering to NYCHA residents, especially those from Walt Whitman houses. Beginning 2023, through the championing of Andrew Steinthal and Angie Báez , The Infatuation joined forces with The Lay Out to bring my idea to life through a dinner series which blends a cooking school with family dinner to bolster our support of One Love Community Fridge.

On Tuesday, March 5th (watch the video, I'll be sad if you don't ??) , we kicked off Women’s History Month by gathering with, and in, community for the 3rd installment of this dinner series, presented by Infatuation, in support of One Love Community Fridge. We were lucky enough to have Chef Rasheeda of NYC’s hottest ramen counter, Ramen By Ra (the first Black-woman owned ramen shop in New York City), as our guest chef. Given that Ramen by Ra seatings are sold out within the first day of each month for the entire month, to say we were honored to steal her away would be an understatement.?

Chef Rasheeda took us through the preparation of her famous Potlikker Ramen (Collard greens and smoked turkey based ramen? Sign us up…again!) before we sat down for a family style dinner and then enjoyedToki hot toddies and treats from the fam at EatGoodNYC.?

This gathering of 20 funded 500 meals to the Brooklyn community, continuing the work of the previous dinners with Eden of Makina Cafe and Nicole and Mike of Aunts Et Uncles, and bringing the total meals provided through the series alone to 1,500. Shout out to our hosts at The Brooklyn Kitchen who get the chefs out of their restaurants so that all of the attendees can gather around burners (or ramen toppings) to prepare our meals.

Not only does this event do good for the community but it brings people together in community, with everyone leaving with several friends before they came. Eat good, do good.?