Honoring Field Workers

Inspired by my gratitude for the courage of organic farmers and by my long commitment to the  organic movement, I offer a blessing at the beginning of shared meals. Whether with family, friends, holiday meals or special occasions, I take a few moments, to speak this gratitude out loud in the presence of shared company. It goes something like this.

Before we enjoy this beautiful food, prepared carefully and lovingly for us, I would like to acknowledge the others who are at this table with us. The many people along the way who touched this food before it arrived on our plate. In particular, I want to acknowledge the unseen faces of the men and women doing the difficult job in the fields harvesting our produce.

I go onto to mention the organic farmers, the packers, truckers and the chain of many hands responsible for the food in front of us.

Daily produce arrives at Charlie Hong Kong. Daily between 400 to 500 pounds of produce is chopped and prepared. It has always been the commitment of Charlie Hong Kong to serve an abundance of organic greens in our Signature Bowls, as well as offering, our Vegetable Medley.  Since organic chard is a big part of our vegetable mix, honoring the field workers who harvest this chard, seemed like the perfect way to celebrate Earth Day this year. When I proposed the idea to Lakeside Organics, there was an enthusiastic, YES. Since 2009, Charlie Hong Kong, has purchase over 5000 boxes of chard from Lakeside. That’s an unimaginable amount of work done in the fields to make sure greens were available to nourish our customers.

The Santa Cruz Sentinel, did an excellent piece of journalism, covering the event. It was a pleasure, and a joy to witness the happiness on the faces of the men, as they came up from the fields to be greeted by a specially prepared lunch just for them, using the very greens they harvested.http://www.santacruzsentinel.com/santacruz/ci_25617181/watsonville-farmworkers-honored-catered-lunch-earth-day