"Food means nutrition, love, and relationship and that is why I’m still around here.”

"When you have food you have life.”

"When you have food you have life.”

"Food is really not only a basic need of human beings but also it can unite us throughout this universe.”

"Once a farmer always a farmer (dad was a dairy farmer). After college my dad served in Honduras with peace corp in small village, no electricity. If anything went wrong with the harvest it was a problem so that shaped my view of food. He said, ’They struggled to have food on the table but they always had enough for me.’”

"The only time I brought something to Friendsgiving it was because a beautiful girl asked me to bring something. So I baked a frozen pizza and put it in a pizza box."

“I didn’t go home for Easter in college because my school did not give us any days off for it. I still wanted it to be special so I invited some of my friends over for Easter dinner and spent the entire weekend cooking up a feast! Biscuits and salads and ham and potatoes and corn and desserts, I had leftovers for days!”

“Food is a big part of who I am. I love to cook, but when I can cook for others it takes on so much more for me. It is an extension of me. It is a way that I can love others and make them feel welcome and cared for. I recently attended my first Kinship Day. I was absolutely blown away by the volunteers, the vision, the people who I got to meet, to eat with, and to dance with. Everyone was coming together to enjoy each other - each other for who they are. WHAT JOY! WHAT SMILES!”

“Cooking, for me, has always been about more than food. When you cook, you are working on yourself. When you share a meal, you are working on other people. It’s universal and communal.”

“It’s funny how this place that has to do with food has really become like a second home for me.”

“You get to know people over time and just as with a family you share ups and downs, joys and sorrows.”

“As a community, we should take better care of each other.”

“Sharing my love with others reminds me that I’m wanted.”

“I just like to help people understand food. There are things we get in here sometimes that people don’t know what it is, or don’t know how to cook it.”