Thankfulness and Community in Good Times and Bad

"Community is an interesting thing in the sense that as humans, we depend on it to provide a certain sense of our well-being, yet at the same time we struggle to define or reinvent our place in it. Given the opportunity to look at our place and function in our community, people have the chance to see their value because what a community is really composed of is relationships.

In difficult times and when tragedies befall us, it is most important as individuals to reflect on what our relationship is to our community and to fulfill that role by whatever means we have at our disposal. The culinary community has a unique opportunity at those times to be on the front line of trying to help revive and nourish people in need. Food can very quickly comfort and console people and help give them a little strength to start rebuilding or recovering from what has hurt them."

--Drew Robinson, Executive Chef--Jim 'N Nick's Bar-B-Q

Our good friends at CNN's "Eatocracy" gave Jim 'N Nick's Executive Chef and Pitmaster, Drew Robinson the opportunity to speak about the very beautiful opportunity that humans have to reach out to each other in times of trouble. Last year, following the terrible storms that raged through Alabama--leaving entire towns leveled and thousands of people homeless and struggling--Drew, along with teams of people from Jim 'N Nick's decided to venture out from the restaurants and take food to the devastated communities. The blessings and lessons learned from the efforts were deep and Drew was inspired to share his thoughts to the folks at Eatocracy.

Now that it is a time of year to reflect and give thanks, CNN decided to re-post Drew's beautiful words for us to ponder today. The above is an excerpt from that post and you can read the rest of it here:

http://eatocracy.cnn.com/2011/11/17/serving-up-gratitude-in-troubled-times/

Thank you Drew and CNN for reminding us of what matters and why cooking is not only fun and delicious, but really, really matters.