You Are What You Eat

The once famous French lawyer and politician turned author, Jean Anthelme Brillat-Savarin (1755-1826) was quoted as saying, “Tell me what you eat, and I will tell you what you are.” Keeping in mind that this statement predates our modern understanding of nutrition and dietary science, it is doubtful that he was referring to strands of protein or simple carbohydrates. His statement holds true to this very day and through travel you can experience it firsthand.

On December 18th, 2014, to commemorate the end of the peak season and show thanks for those who made it possible, we hosted our Annual Year End Celebration for our teammates and landscaped two homes for Habitat for Humanity. The preparations always take a lot of time away from our respective routines as the party draws near, and it creates a burden for some. Creating the agenda, finding volunteers, putting together presentations, shopping for groceries, buying gifts, renting tables, rolling silverware in cloth napkins, and preparing our warehouse are only a few of the chores to be done. This year, our employee led cooking teams roasted three whole hogs, smoked a dozen turkeys, fried 200 quail, grilled 220 steaks, scrambled 30 dozen eggs, and prepared homemade collards, potatoes, sweet potatoes, 3 types of mac-n-cheese, Brunswick stew, clam chowder, seafood gumbo, cupcakes, and on and on. One team built its own smoker from a metal barrel, while another team slaughtered its own chickens for Brunswick stew. Managers worked together to source a commercial fryer, dozens of propane tanks, burners, grills, firewood, cookware, and so on. It has gotten so out of hand that we have purchased a stainless steel commercial size refrigerator for our warehouse, and we are considering a shed to store cookware, cutlery, and supplies.

Going to this much trouble to show thanks really is a whole lot of work, and it is terribly inefficient, but that’s the beauty of being a closely held private company; At the end of the day, we get to make decisions that reflect our own values, sometimes foregoing profits in the name of what we believe in, whether we are deciding on a party for our team, or resolving a situation involving a customer.

Instead of paying all of our employees for a full day of work and spending the time enjoying one another’s fellowship and camaraderie, I guess we could just hire a caterer and whittle the whole thing down into a couple of hours. Then, we could take some of that money saved and spend it on things like team building, training coaches, efficiency experts, and a positivity program that reminds everyone they are all on the same team. We could probably buy some posters with catchy little phrases, or even give everyone a t-shirt that says something like “team member”. For some people, especially those in HR at large corporations, this may sound like a better solution and one that pencils out nicely on paper complete with a nod from management and a gold star sticker that says “great job”, but for me that just doesn’t cut it.

Call me an unrealistic idealist if you will, but I firmly believe that the best things to come out of these celebratory feasts aren’t anything to do with the perfectly cooked steaks and take home plates of homemade food to share with our families. The real celebration happens when you see a sleep deprived member of management peek his head out from behind the towering column of steam and smoke coming from a grill as the sun rises and he anxiously knows that in 5 more hours, the hog that he and his cross-company team have tended all night long will feed the very same people who he depends on to get his work done everyday. Words can not do justice to the smile you see when you place a beautifully cooked ribeye steak and scrambled eggs on someone’s plate only to have them tell you it is the first time anyone has ever cooked them a steak and that it means a lot to them.

There is an unmistakable feeling of gratitude and benevolence in preparing a meal and serving it to another human being and this timeless tradition is one that we all too often forget about during our fast paced twenty first century lives. While I beckon the future and all of the opportunities it brings, inside, like many, I long for a time when meals were more than just a ratio driven balance of protein, “if you dare” carbohydrates, and god for bid “Gluten”. As Americans, more than many other cultures in the world, we have replaced meal times with drive thru windows between soccer games and so called “meal replacements”, yet we wonder why the family unit is fading. Whether we realize it or not, food and mealtimes are a sacred part of our cultural heritage and over the history of mankind they have been revered as a forum for not just eating, but also socializing, sharing news, making introductions, and even gossiping!

In the 200 plus years that have passed since Brillat-Savarin penned his famous work Gastronomie, the concept of knowing a person through their eating habits is still very true, and I propose to you now that the same applies for our business, only the wording would be changed to read as follows; “Tell me how they feed each other, and I will show you how they work as a team.”

My sincere, heartfelt thanks go out to all of our team members for the efforts you made in 2014 and with a tip of the hat, I wish all of you a very prosperous and healthy 2015!

Kindest regards,

Kurt Harrington Bland