Humble Wants and Needs
Creating community is a honey of an approach to supporting small businesses
COVER: Setting a sustainable table is the beginning of any holiday gathering. To learn how and why we set ours, click here. Photo by Viktor Budnik.
EDIBLE Epistles
With this issue, we celebrate Edible San Fernando Valley magazine’s first anniversary. Fittingly, the traditional gift for this anniversary is paper. So you are holding our first-anniversary gift to you. Enjoy it. Savor it. Share it.
In the years ahead, we look forward to telling compelling stories of the people and businesses in the Valley. But for now, we settle into autumn, a warm-fuzzy season replete with earth tones, family and feasts. While most of the country is wearing bulky sweaters, we’re in shorts, T-shirts and sandals. That’s OK. We’re still all in when it comes to celebrating autumn in traditional ways. Menus veer from light salads to heartier fare. (Or hearty salads, as you’ll see with our 1-2-3 Salad.)
As we serve up feasts with all the trimmings and share them with friends and family, then afterward groan about how full we are, let us remember that not everyone is so lucky. Nearly 14% of Los Angeles County residents live in poverty.
Wonderful local organizations are working to end food insecurity. One of them is the San Fernando Valley group of Lasagna Love. In this issue, Brenda Rees introduces us to this nonprofit, where volunteer chefs deliver homemade lasagnas to families that request them. Lasagna! What a perfect meal to bring someone—classic, filling and comforting.
People can leave notes with their lasagna request. Ellen Klinenberg, volunteer leader of the San Fernando Valley area, told us one note said: “My 16-year-old daughter went to bed hungry last night.”
This crushes me; I’ll bet you too. Feeding people is my love language. When I volunteer, it’s usually with food-based organizations that work to end food insecurity. This year, I participated in National Lasagna Day by making a lasagna that was given to a hungry family. It felt good. And I hope the family enjoyed eating it as much as I did making it. New Year’s resolutions are a season away, but now might be a good time to get involved with your favorite nonprofit working to help end food insecurity for local families.
Enjoy the season!
Sarene Wallace
Managing Editor
As we enter this upcoming holiday season at what feels like light-speed, I encourage you to take a couple moments in each day to slow down and breathe in some sort of peace. When we turn our focus toward gratitude, it seems that even our food tastes better. On that note, I want to express our deep gratitude for the advertisers and contributors who make this magazine possible. Please join me during the holidays to support our local purveryors by buying gifts that support the mission of a local and sustainable community.
Together we can change the world!
Tami Chu
Publisher
