Cooking Up Connection Building Community Starts With You

growing up

i found a lot of routine in my

day-to-day life it looked something like

this

there was a drive to school every

morning where i passed by the same man

playing guitar in his front porch

the same snacks that i grabbed on my way

to whatever sport i was practicing at

the time

and most notably the weekend gatherings

of my very large extended egyptian

family

each of these activities bonded me to

others and began to form my first

sense of community whether it was my

classmates who also chatted about the

man on the front porch

my teammates who i spent every day after

school with or my family

who shaped the largest portion of who i

am today

in each chapter of my life i’ve been

challenged to redefine

what a community looks like the

community where i engage daily as an

undergraduate student looks very

different from my childhood community

i discovered that community is found not

only in the experiences that come my way

but in those that i can actively seek

out

when you stop to think about how you

connect to a community what comes to

mind

does it look something like this this

right here is my breeding ground for

community building

a crowded kitchen too many used dishes

ingredients of every variety pulled out

for using

some might consider it to be

overwhelming but i find it to be a place

to figuratively and literally cook up

connection

throughout my life in an egyptian

kitchen the purpose for my large

extended family to gather

was to eat my immigrant grandmothers are

the stereotypical chefs

who eyeball every measurement pull

recipes out of a mental reserve

and for those reasons taught me in the

kitchen less recipes

and more lessons about life how there is

power in food as it brought people

together

those weekends i saw a beauty in

community

while it was food that brought us

together it was only the bridge that

sparked conversation on life and other

happenings in the world

i came to the university of florida i

longed for connection and i found so

through food

i found comfort in my solo bake sessions

and trips to farmer’s markets for pies

or fruits

but what i craved the most out of the

cooking and the eating was the part

where i gathered with others

so i began to cook more and it

intersected with the quality time i

spent with my friends

it bridged us closer and closer together

as we created a space for conversation

and vulnerability

in every ad-lib recipe or communal

potluck we shared ideas and we shared

stories

of how our families did things in the

kitchen and how things were in our lives

but why does gathering matter so much

there are a lot of parallels between

gathering community

and social justice in the modern age of

social action

diversity and inclusion have become the

golden words of our society

but how do we bridge these into a

reality

we find the answer to this in community

when we create communities based on our

shared interests

we’re able to be brought together in

ways that supersede

race religion socioeconomic status

or any other identity or element of life

that may prevent the intersection of

diverse corners from gathering

and when these communities are built

based on our interest diversity and

inclusion

become the core of their existence

rather than an element of division

it’s important to note though that

identities are intersectional

and that whatever an individual comes to

this newly created community of interest

with

is a bunch of other histories and this

is the key to be part of many

communities

is essential to our holistic

understanding of ourselves

and the world around us additionally it

serves as a tool to engage with others

empathetically

let me visualize this for you imagine a

paint palette

with colors organized into their own

individual spaces

the wide range of colors represent the

many communities we are born into

and represent but as colors interact

with others we create a new shade or a

new community

separate from any individual identity so

in the same way that yellow paint when

connected to blue paint

creates a new shared green paint when i

engage with others

through the meaningful connection that i

find through food and cooking

i’m able to understand learn and engage

with even more perspectives and

communities

that i am not individually a part of all

of this

while preserving and bringing to those

conversations everything that i embody

as an individual

we’ve seen this work in subtle ways and

as someone planning to enter medicine

i’ll speak of it in the context of

health care where connection is the

basis of success between the patient

relationship to the larger medical

infrastructure

when i pick up the phone to call a

patient at the mobile outreach clinic i

typically start by finding one point of

connection

that will allow for other non-connected

issues to be brought up

so when we first get on the phone and

start laughing about how the kale salad

recipe

really did the trick on their digestive

system that vulnerability and trust

formed

invites conversation about food

insecurity and mental health

they may also be facing our shared

experiences

become a common ground in a starter kit

towards social justice and social change

as we become allies and advocates for

one another on these larger issues down

the road

but social change is big and it can

often be difficult for an individual to

find a place to start

i want to help open the floodgates of

thought into where within yourself

you already hold the first materials

needed to bridge

yourself into another community

the materials are sourced from any

passion or interest you hold

outside of your regularly programmed

identity

film appreciation painting working out

volunteering you name it for me

my community of interest found a home

base in the kitchen

i found a connector to others through

food and cooking and in the beautiful

moments of togetherness created because

of that food

it wasn’t that everyone in my kitchen

was a professional chef

it’s that we were all able to understand

one another through the universal

language of food

which brought us together

for many sports fans the excitement or

even the distress of

last week’s game can be the start to

further conversation

whether you are the player or the

observer the supporter of the winning

team or not

there’s a connection there that can lead

to an understanding

outside of that shared sports community

for environmentalists attending for

example a volunteer cleanup

can connect you to others who have a

shared passion for environmental

activism

but hold an entirely different unshared

identity that you can learn from

it’s almost as though you need to find

within you your outer layer

that will connect you to a community

lead to a conversation

and allow for shared understanding and

actionable reflection

whether it’s a kitchen a sporting arena

a place of solitude

or your very own home there are so many

places to find connection

and i challenge you to think

intrinsically about what supersedes your

identity

and use that to connect communities

it’s exciting to know that through the

resourceful intersection of your

passions

you can be a community builder there’s

no need to invent a new skill or wait

for something extraordinary to happen in

your life

you have the power to connect to

somebody right now

today think of the space you frequent

the most

your workspace the seat you taking class

a spot on the bus

wherever now think of the people who

surround you

in that space if you ask them

they probably don’t have the same name

as you probably don’t have the same

favorite food as you

and probably have a different

understanding of life than you do

but they for the same reason or not

landed themselves in a spot that day

next to you

and would benefit a lot from getting to

know you and why

so i’m not asking you to cook more or

even to eat more

i’m calling on you to find your kitchen

your place for community building and

maybe

you might just even get a good dish out

of it too thank you