My First Week on the Job at Martha’s Table

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Monday, February 9, 2015 at 10:09 AM

My First Week on the Job at Martha’s Table

This week marks my first week as the new Senior Director of Healthy Eating at Martha’s Table. On Monday morning, as I dropped my six year old off at school on my way to the office, I asked if she had any advice for me on my first day at the new job. “Be brave,” she told me. Turns out, bravery is just one of the things I needed this week.

Monday was cold and windy, though of course you’d never know that from inside my office. But at 4pm, I closed down my already exploding inbox and went outside to help the fabulous Martha’s Table army of volunteers distribute a hot meal to local men and women in need. I was outside for about 30 minutes, and I was cold. The hot meal – chicken, rice, corn, mushroom and peppers – warmed up my hands as I served it, a sobering reminder about the need for hot nutritious food and shelter in the dark and cold days of winter.

I started Wednesday morning in the kitchen with Chef April, where I made baked sweet potato fries for the 200 children in the Martha’s Table early child care center. At noon, I jumped over to the classrooms, and had lunch with the adorable two- and three-years, all of whom seemed to love my sweet potato fries, as well as the made-from-scratch turkey cheeseburgers and sliced oranges.

On Thursday morning, I joined some of the volunteers who so generously give their time every day to help slice, chop and peel pounds and pounds of fresh fruit and veggies. These raw ingredients are used in the nightly McKenna’s Wagon hot meal deliveries around D.C. to people in need. In addition, they are used in the cooking demos Chef Jojo leads in elementary schools around D.C., where Martha’s Table provides much needed fresh produce as well as basics, like beans and rice, to help the 1-in-3 D.C. children who don’t where their next meal will come from.

On Friday, I went to check out the cold storage unit and the food for the day. I was amazed at the colors – chopped red tomatoes, sliced orange carrots, green lettuce, and chopped purple and white cabbage. It was enough to make my six year old dream of making rainbows. And enough to remind me how excited I am to be part of this organization, with big dreams to provide healthy, nourishing food to those in need across Washington D.C.

By Caron Gremont, Senior Director of Healthy Eating