Launch of Dinner Party Donation Fund!

I love to have people over & cook for people; it is something I'm good at and it makes me happy to cozy up with a circle of people I enjoy, in turn making them happy. But some discussion at my church small group the other week got me thinking . . . how can I use this thing I love, this talent, the space I have (what there is of it!), to serve people outside my circle of friends? People who cannot repay me, who have greater concrete needs? (Not to say my friends don't have a real need to eat something tasty from time to time!)

Enter The Dinner Party Donation Fund, a collective effort to allow our enjoyment of good food & good company to benefit more than just ourselves. (Suggestions for a snazzy name, preferably with a really awful--by which I mean, wonderful--pun & some punchy alliteration?) I have dinner parties anyway; people offer to contribute anyway. Now I just provide the no-pressure option to anonymously put some money in an envelope. We'll use the funds to support various organizations that are doing good work and helping people build better lives for themselves. I don't necessarily make more than the cost of the meal itself (my time + groceries), but I don't intend the dinners to function as fundraisers per se. I'm just providing an opportunity for the people who enjoy the experience to tangibly express it.

I'm biased towards organizations that address an underlying problem rather than just doling out a band aid. Consequently, our first project is to buy a cow ("an udderly original gift") through Heifer International, a $500 purchase. Last night we ate gaeng hang lay curry using the recipe of Pee Jam, my Hmong host mother, who worked with Heifer in Northern Thailand. She presided over several "pass the gift" ceremonies, where women who'd received livestock via Heifer gave one of the offspring to another woman. Cows provide milk, with needed calcium and protein, not just for the family, but to sell, turning a profit which can finance things like school fees. When I lived in Central America, another family used their animal as collateral to obtain a loan, with which they purchased a sewing machine and started a tailoring business. Without the animal, they'd have had to use their home, and I think we have a renewed appreciation of the problems with that.

Our first night got us off to a great start, enabling me to move the cartoon cow up the grass pasture thermometer designed by my roommate. (Photos forthcoming.) I am having another dinner on Wednesday, and hopefully many more to follow, moving that cow up towards the goal. If you're in the New York area please email whatsinthepot.blog@gmail.com for an invite.