An Abundant Life - Creating Plenty

It's been a very busy and eventful summer thanks to the organizations EAT, IDEO, Thought For Food, The Rockefeller Foundation, Forum for the Future, Meridian Institute, SecondMuse and Intention 2 Impact who joined forces to support ideas, enterprises and initiatives through the Food Systems Game Changers Lab that I've been a part of, and there have been some exciting updates for Love & Plenty which is the project I submitted to the Lab that was accepted into the program. For twelve weeks I've been a part of a Cohort that has been discussing ideas to create a solution for the topic "Building Food Literacy Through Education" and though we are now nearing the end of the program we are at the beginning of another part of the journey. We met weekly by Zoom call because, though there were some members located more locally, we were a group that was located all over the world. It was a beautiful experience to have the opportunity to meet all of these wonderful people from so many different backgrounds and so many different places and to come together to talk about this topic and realize how closely we all were thinking. As we neared the end of the twelve weeks, we began to form the ideas we had been sharing into an Action Agenda that would be submitted and published for the United Nations Food Systems Summit 2021 which began on the 23rd of this month. We will also present our ideas to interested stakeholders and possible supporters and funders beginning on September 27th. The entire process has been such an educational and personally broadening one, as we worked together to create something that was much larger than any of our original projects that we had submitted to the program. Global in scope but also locally replicable, the solution we created will now be shared with the world.

It was hard to imagine in the beginning that we would get to this place, but with so many excellent minds and hearts sharing time and effort together, great things can happen. As part of the Executive Editing team, I suggested we include as many of our Cohort Members as possible in the process because everyone has so many wonderful skills and ideas to share. When we began to think of a name, I started to play with words one morning, and "Education = Power In Choice (EPIC): Empowering Communities Through Food System Education" took form. I sent it out to the group and it was chosen, and it helped to give form and a throughline to the vision of community education that would help bring positive change in the food system that would impact people of all ages and backgrounds throughout the world.

As we begin to present our solution over these next days and weeks, it will be exciting to see what will unfold. I've been in touch with some long term friends and mentors and colleagues as well as some newer ones, and it has felt so wonderful to reconnect again around this issue. As I look back to the time fifteen years ago when I first began to work in ministry after I was born again, first in a meal program on Manhattan's lower east side and then in an after school youth program on Avenue D and 11th Street in Jacob Riis Houses, I never would have dreamed then that this work would have taken me to this place. As the fall begins with the weather that I love so much, I've been taking walks and remembering those days that are now in the past. I had nothing then, or what felt like nothing, because so much had been lost, but through these years I have not wanted for anything and step by step as I followed the dreams that God had put into my heart, dreams that said that all people deserve healthy, fresh and delicious food, to have a place of peace and safety to live and rest, and to have work they enjoy tthat sustains them and is sustainable, I found that the more I encouraged and supported and gave a helping hand to others my own life became more beautiful and more fulfilled. Love & Plenty was created from the inspiration of the life I've lived, my experiences of these past fifteen years, and a very special Chef, and as this new part of the vision begins to unfold, I am so grateful for all that has happened to bring it to this point and look forward with excitement, knowing the best is yet to come.

Education = Power In Choice (EPIC)

Empowering Communities Through Food System Education

A Solution Developed By Cohort 21

Building Food Literacy Through Education

The Food Systems Game Changers Lab

Presented At The UN Food Systems Summit 2021

https://thoughtforfood.org/gamechangerslab

Blessings,

Jannie Susan

An Abundant Life - A Warrior's Art

Last June I took a friend to meet the Artist Tommy the Animator and to see a mural he had been a part of creating that was curated by the Art Director of a project on 125th Street in Harlem. When I had scheduled the meeting, I had asked Tommy where he'd suggest we eat dinner afterward, and he mentioned a few places that all sounded like wonderful ideas. One of them, Red Rooster, I'd heard of and had been wanting to try, and so after checking with him and with my friend if that would be an acceptable choice, I made a reservation. The day that we went there was a very warm one, and we sat outside with fans blowing all around us. It was a wonderful afternoon and evening, and everything was enjoyable, and somehow with all the colorful touches of the restaurant and the outdoor seating area, I found myself feeling like I'd walked into another very creative world. At one point when our server was talking to us about the menu, I told him how much I liked his apron, and he said that the person who had made it was working that night. He brought him over to meet us and he was wearing one too, and then I noticed that all the servers were. It was a very busy time of the evening and so I gave him my card and said I'd like to come back one day when it was quieter and talk with him about his art and the beautiful aprons. Time went by and one month led to another and I got very busy with a few projects that were taking a great deal of time and energy. And then one day a few weeks ago, I received an email from the Artist. His name is Hass Kwame, and his company is Danyaki Art & Design, and when he got in touch with me he said that he'd been looking for my card for a while and had finally found it in one of his aprons. I was so happy to hear from him because I hadn't forgotten how much I enjoyed the restaurant and how beautiful his work was, but I had been so busy that I hadn't had a chance to find a time to go back for a visit. We made a plan to meet at another place not far away on his day off, and I finally had a chance to sit down and visit with him.

Hass is from Ghana, but he's been in New York for 20 years. He started working in restaurants to pay for art school, and when he found out that Chef Marcus Samuelsson was creating Red Rooster and hiring staff, he knew it was a place he'd want to be. He had been painting canvases and also was interested in clothing design, and he started at first with hand painted clothing. When he had a pop up shop and was wearing his own apron that had been created in his studio, people kept asking him to make aprons for them. He made a few and people kept asking, and so he decided that it was the apron that would be his canvas. His company is called Danyaki Art & Design, and he describes in a video that was made about him for the new advertising campaign for Pepsi this past summer, "Pepsi, It's A New York Thing", that Danyaki means warrior and he sees his aprons as clothing to protect and to create living works of walking art. Hass describes his design and creative process as ideation, and in his words, "The various tints, shades, tones, washes, drips, spills, colors, cracks, abrasions, tatters, whiskers, rips and scratches all serve to define the unique quality, aesthetic and experience of my products. In many ways, these "perfect imperfections" also reflect the natural beauty of my early childhood environments."   

As we sat outside on another very warm day and I heard his story, I realized that Hass has a quality about him that is both insightful and quiet and also very colorful and glowing. It is in a way as his art is, multidimensional and multifaceted, abstract lines and shapes of colors layered one on another with a thoughtful and mindful care that is joyous and seemingly boundless though there is a method behind the layering and bold strokes of paint that makes each piece unique and beautiful. I think perhaps Hass is a warrior, one who uses the canvas of his aprons to create works of art that give the wearers a feeling of freedom, and that encourage and celebrate their unique and beautiful inner life. These are aprons that can be worn every day, in a kitchen, in a garden, as a professional Chef or an Artist, or we can just hang one on our wall or in a place where we will not only see it but be able to take it down and wear it when we feel the need to put something on that like the armor of a long ago fairy tale will give us hidden strength and wisdom to be the person we were made to be.

Hass Kwame

Video Courtesy of "Pepsi, It's A New York Thing"

https://www.danyaki.com

A Few Of The Chefs And Celebrities

Who Wear Aprons From Danyaki 

Photographs Courtesy of the Danyaki Website

Hass Kwame

Photographs From A Post By Marcus Samuelsson

On His Facebook Page

Blessings,

Jannie Susan

An Abundant Life - The Flavors Of Health And A Family History

For the past few years I have been walking by a building on Franklin Street and the corner of Palisade Avenue in Jersey City Heights, and wondering who it was who I occasionally saw going in and out of the ground floor space. The windows were usually dark or partly covered over so the light was only dimly visible from the outside, and often it just seemed like there was no one there at all. But then I would walk by at an odd hour and I'd see someone inside or going in or coming out, and sometimes I'd see them putting boxes in a car or van or unloading boxes and bringing them inside. And then one day I started to see work being done on the front part of the building, and it seemed like whoever was working there was making some kind of restaurant space. Over time I saw that there was an awning put up and signs on the windows and finally I discovered that the new space was named Ichiban To Go. I still wasn't sure what was happening in the back or if the two spaces were related, but somehow I had a feeling they were. And then one day when I was walking by I saw someone in the window taking care of and rooting many avocado plants, and as I'd been wanting to stop in and find out more about the restaurant and because I have a personal history with and love of avocado plants, I decided to walk in and say hello.

When I stopped by that day, I found out that Ichiban To Go is owned by the family who owns the catering company that I'd seen glimpses of in the once seemingly mysterious back area. I also found out that the avocado plants are being rooted and lovingly cared for by Chris who works there, and that she started to do it because they use so many avocados in the restaurant and catering company that she just thought it was something important to do so as not to waste them. I grew up with avocado plants always rooting in windows because my mother loved avocados and loved to root them, and we always had the plants growing around our house, but I'd never seen so many as those that Chris has happily growing in the windows of Ichiban To Go.

I took some photographs and left my business card, and set a day to return and try some of the wonderful things I saw on the menu. When I stopped by again I met Jessica Chuang, the daughter of the owner James Chuang, and the Vice President of the business, Chuang Wen Inc., and Lucy who also works there, and I thought to myself how wonderful it was that each person I meet at this lovely place is always so friendly and helpful. After I asked Jess what she would recommend I try, she put together such a beautiful selection of sushi rolls that I truly felt like I'd been given a treasure. When I arrived home, one delightful box opening after another revealed an Ichiban Roll, a Kobe Beef Roll, a Truffle Scallop Roll and a Salmon Belly Roll, along with a delightful family creation called a Sushi Pizza. Jess followed up with me by email, and told me a bit about her father, and said that if I wanted to hear more of the story she'd be happy to tell me over lunch. That was an offer that I could not refuse because the sushi rolls and sushi pizza I'd tried were so delicious and fresh and beautifully made and I love a good story, especially about a family that from everything I'd seen was a wonderful one.

We sat outside to talk the next time I stopped by, and I tried the Pork Belly Bao Buns and the Peking Duck Wrap while Jess shared her story about their family business. Though I didn't want to take too much of her time, our conversation lasted quite a while because I kept interrupting her to say how deliciously layered and savory the two items were. She told me that the recipes they use are a combination of old family recipes and new things they develop in response to their own always wanting to create new delicious things and requests and suggestions of customers. Her father had come to New Jersey from Taiwan, and when he was working as the Manager of a Carvel store in Princeton, he asked the owner if he could make Sushi in the back. His business grew and after three or four years he was able to open his own place in what once was an auto-shop he found with a business partner. He tore out and removed what had been there and renovated carefully by hand. Six year old Jessica watched him patiently build it, wiring for electricity and cleaning and building it out into a catering kitchen and restaurant from what had been a completely different space. She grew up in the restaurant and worked there in high school as a cashier after school, and after graduating from college with a business marketing degree, she went back to work with her family to help bring the business from the paper world to the digital world. She was soon hired by The Plaza Hotel as an Event Coordinator, but even while doing that job and the jobs she was hired for after, she continued to work with her family and had two jobs at all times in those years. Now her focus is on her family's restaurant and catering company. Though she loves marketing and business and has great skill for it and excelled in the jobs she had after college, her love for her family and their business decided her on the path to help support and focus on what her father and family had built and help it to thrive. 

As caterers, they work regularly at The Plaza Hotel in New York City as well as for other high end venues and clients including Cipriani and Mandarin Oriental, and in 2019 they were awarded as one of Harriette Rose Katz's "Chosen Few" in recognition of the excellence of their luxury sushi catering. Their displays are gorgeous and the food is of the highest quality. The name Ichiban means "number one" or "first place" and they are devoted to providing only the best with the highest quality ingredients. They believe in a a very natural aesthetic for design in their restaurants and in the serving items they use for events, and the food they create is based on their own family traditional recipes which gives it flavor that has many layers and depth. Jessica speaks Mandarin and English fluently, and her parents speak English, Mandarin, Taiwanese, and many other dialects, and she told me that there is a word in Mandarin that is hard to translate into English but that means something along the lines of "healthy taste" and that word is what describes the quality of excellent food. It made me want to learn more about Mandarin so that I could understand the meaning of that word because it is more than can be sensed in translation. The food I was experiencing at Ichiban To Go has the flavor of the health of the freshness of the ingredients and the flavor of the layers of spices and sauces and textures, and it is the way the food is made that gives the person eating it the feeling of wellness and satisfaction. It made me think of the idea of holistic health, and how the food we eat can touch all of our senses, from the beauty of the preparation through to the enjoyment of the taste and texture and scent and the nourishment it gives.

Ichiban To Go is one of those places that seems like a dream to have found it. Knowing that I can walk by any time and walk in for the freshest and most lovely and delicious sushi, a Bao Bun or wrap, or any other of the traditional family recipes that grace the menu is a beautiful blessing. The family does have another restaurant that was planned to be opened in Manhattan but that has been closed due to short staffing during this time. So for now, the location in Jersey City Heights is a must visit adventure, and if you're having a party or event, call or stop by to talk about having it catered with one of their loveliest and most deliciously inventive displays.

Ichiban To Go

365 Palisade Avenue

Jersey City Heights, New Jersey

  http://www.chuangweninc.com

A Banquet At Home

Sushi Pizza

Truffle Scallop Roll

Kobe Beef Roll

Salmon Belly Roll

Ichiban Roll

A Sidewalk Feast

Pork Belly Bao Buns

Peking Duck Wrap

Avocado Plants

Happily Growing In The Window

Blessings,

Jannie Susan

An Abundant Life - Heritage

When I was thinking about what to write this week, I remembered that it is Labor Day on Monday, and that means it is the anniversary of sorts for this blog. I started writing this section subtitled "An Abundant Life" on Labor Day in 2015, and there have been so many beautiful adventures ever since. As I thought about what or who to write about this week, I began to think about my mother, and somehow that seems like the right person to write about because so much of who I am is because of her.

My mother came to Sarah Lawrence College from Briarcliff High School. A teacher who recognized her as a star student in a description that would follow her all her life recommended her for one of the scholarships available to top students from Westchester County, and the trajectory of her life was changed. The daughter of parents who, though they had a love of the arts and education, had not had the opportunity to attend college, she had a love of learning and reading, and a yearning for something greater than the small though beloved community she grew up in. She met my father’s brother at a mixer between Sarah Lawrence and Yale, and met my father at a party at their family home in Harrison. My mother, a mixture of Grace Kelly, Ingrid Bergman and Greta Garbo, and my father with the looks of a young Paul Newman and a touch of F. Scott Fitzgerald and Hemingway added in fell in love immediately and were a romantic and enviable couple, and young as they were, they wanted to set up house immediately and start their life together. But in another life-changing moment, my mother’s advisors at Sarah Lawrence encouraged her to finish her degree, though in those days it wasn’t seen by many people as a necessity for a woman to have a college education. It was because of those far-seeing and caring people that my mother was able to stay on campus to finish her degree and also marry my father and begin a family with him while he worked toward his own degree at Yale and then, when they were able to move into an apartment in New York City, he went on to Columbia University.

My childhood home was full of books, art, music and design. It was also full of conversation, and it was a place where children were encouraged to be seen and heard. I learned from an early age how to read, creating difficulty for my teachers when I started first grade a year early and they asked my parents to stop teaching me so much at home. Later, after I, as the youngest, was old enough to be left alone after school, my mother returned to college to gain her Masters Degree and then her Doctorate, and went on to work as a sociologist and researcher first at Boston Children’s Hospital and then Harvard University’s School of Public Health. She worked until she was in her 70’s, and was a respected and well loved colleague and professional whose contributions were described as always being insightful, well thought out and researched, and precise. If there is one thing that I can pinpoint that I have learned from her and from my own education at Sarah Lawrence that has continued to benefit me, it is the art of critical thinking, of being open-minded enough to embrace and welcome the ideas of all people and to engage in encouraging discussion rather than aggressive debate.

My mother's father, my grandfather, was an immigrant who came through Ellis Island, and my grandmother was the first generation of her family that was born in America. Because of the opportunity given to their daughter to attend Sarah Lawrence College and to be treated, not as an outsider, but treasured because of her potential, her hard work and her brilliant mind, she was able to bring up a family of humanitarian thinkers, professionals in human services, and contributors to their communities.

As a young girl, my mother was a promising Artist in many disciplines. I didn't realize it until much later that she was an Artist because it was just a part of who she was. She didn't describe herself as being one, she just was. She decorated out home beautifully, cooked wonderful meals and refinished furniture, and she sketched and painted, sang and played our baby grand piano with a lovely touch. She encouraged all of us to pursue every kind of art imaginable, and it is because of that I started writing at a very young age and putting on plays in our barn. I encourage anyone reading this to never underestimate the good work you do when you reach a hand to help a promising young mind to explore, to be nurtured and to grow. It will always bear fruit.

When she was a teenager, my mother became a mother's helper for a family that spent summers in Rhode Island. As a family we started going there the year that I was born, and it is in my view the most beautiful place there is. The vision and plan I have to start a sustainability and health and wellness learning center, arts retreat, and farm to table Chef's table restaurant there is in many ways an ode to her and the memory of all of the beautiful times we shared there together. In so many ways everything that I do has reflections of her in one way or another, and though at times our tastes differ, her quiet presence adds a touch of something special, even if it is just a soft scent of her favorite Chanel No. 5.

With My Mother

In Rhode Island

Blessings,

Jannie Susan