WE ALL NEED A REASON TO CELEBRATE.
While we don't particularly love 'Hallmark Holidays', we do truly value a reason to celebrate. But in many celebrations, we see two opposing forces at work:
On the one hand, the prevailing consumer culture shouts out to buy, buy, BUY! You can hardly get through one holiday before they are re-setting the shelves for the next, leaving nary a reprieve from the ongoing refrain of, 'Okay, now spend your money on this.'
On the other hand, there is so much hardship in the world that the daily (or up-to-the-minute) news cycle frequently brings on such feelings of guilt and anguish that it may feel like nothing is worth celebrating in the face of so much suffering.
We're continually seeking a balance. We love rituals. We love building time into our schedules to stop and reconnect with people - to share good food, and good times, and good stories, and to make good memories. While grand and festive celebration is not an everyday occurrence, we hope it comes at regular intervals for you, at times both momentous and seemingly insignificant.
Of all of the regularly observed holidays this week (Mardis Gras on Tuesday, Valentine's Day Wednesday, President's Day on Monday), our favorite is the Lunar New Year. This holiday obviously speaks to our reverence for the moon, but we also love it because our good friends have built a tradition around the holiday: our friend, Jenna - whose Mom's family is from China - hosts an annual potluck, and each year we revel in the festivity of it all, as she passes on the traditions and wisdom of how to bring luck in the new year.* It's a simple celebration, and while there is nothing fancy about it, it's become a cherished tradition where good friends come together to share a lasting ritual (now four years running).
In other news, we have something small to celebrate. Nick A. won this milk frother in last week's newsletter competition. Thank you so much to everyone that entered (all 180 of you). We're continually floored by the contributions of the GFJ community. We loved hearing your stories of finding (or not) a job through GFJ, and here's a random smattering that we thought you would enjoy (we wish we could publish them all here, they were so good):
HAVEN'T FOUND A JOB YET
Never found a job here, but my current supervisor turned me onto your emails, and the additional tidbits of thought that are provided give me an auxiliary mental outlet outside of work.
HAVE INTERVIEWED BUT HAVEN'T GOTTEN A JOB VIA GFJ JUST YET
I've applied for a few jobs and maybe went to one interview through GFJ. It was a group interview for a farmer's market manager position. I didn't get the job, but it was such a great experience to meet fellow people passionate about farmer's markets that I went away from it feeling inspired and glad there are others out there motivated to make good food a reality.
NO, BUT I KNOW SOMEONE WHO HAS
One of my previous coworkers got her job through GFJ and she's now one of my best friends. If it wasn't for her seeing the posting on GFJ we may have never met.
WELL, SORT OF . . .
I don’t think of it as being a job, but I got my radio show, the Accidental Locavore Live! through a job that I applied for (and didn’t get) on GFJ. I love it and getting to know so many different people doing great things with food!
OH HELL YEAH, AND IT'S BEEN LIFE CHANGING
I found my graduate research assistantship on Good Food Jobs. I wasn't even applying to graduate schools but found the perfect-fit funding opportunity as one of your weekly highlighted jobs, applied and got it. It's what got me my master's degree and I'll be forever grateful. It was an incredible opportunity for me!
I went out on a limb to take a very part time job working for a woman starting her own food company. She ended up being a wonderful mentor who encouraged me to follow my own passion to farm, and the part time work from her was flexible enough to allow me to pursue apprenticeships, move multiple times, start a farm, and start a family while still paying my bills. It was exactly what I needed, I just couldn’t envision everything it would afford me when I first started.
I landed a job through GFJ that prompted a major move for me. At the end of a season working on a CSA vegetable farm in South Dakota, I was hired to be a farm hand on a goat dairy on Kauai, HI. It was the adventure of my dreams to uproot myself from the uncertainty of life after college and the impending SD winter and be transplanted onto that tropical-fruit-lover's paradise. This job led me to so many incredible experiences that now lend to my knowledge of food and growing practices relevant to my current work, and I couldn't have done it without GFJ.
It was an internship, my first chance to prove myself after college. It was an invaluable learning opportunity - I developed organizational and leadership skills, and met some truly inspiring people that are still doing amazing work. I have since moved on to full-time paid work, and decided I wanted to go to grad school! But will always remember that internship, and all the stumbles, growing moments, and sweet memories that came with it.
A few years ago I saw a blog post on GFJ. I thought the organization and her job sounded wonderful, and ended up applying for and was offered her position through the same fellowship a year later. In taking the fellowship, I transitioned from working in nutrition domestically to international work, and moved from Washington DC to Kigali, Rwanda (where I still live and work today!).
We'd call each and every one of those stories a reason to celebrate. May you all have great fortune.
Gung Hay Fat Choy!
Tay + Dor
Co-Founders, Good Food Jobs
* Jenna's Grandma Lee says, Clean your house, especially sweeping, and cut your hair BEFORE the new year. You have to sweep out all the bad luck to make room for the NEW sparkly good luck that will enter your house on the 16th.
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