THERE IS SOMETHING ABOUT THE SEASONAL CHANGE ...
in what we're eating that makes autumn feel like a restart to the year, even though it happens as the calendar year is waning. The cooler weather signals different cravings in our bodies, while the fruits and vegetables, plants and animals, also respond to coldness, changing the menu as we change our minds.
The pandemic has put our annual reflections into relief, making it more clear than ever the difference between where we are now, and where we were last fall / winter / spring / summer. In this case, with all of our small team at GFJ playing the role of caretakers for children who are not yet eligible for vaccination, the awareness of the risks of COVID remain sharp. Yet our sense of what the winter holds is still more promising than last year, because we live in places where vaccination is prevalent, and that means more safety and freedom than we experienced one year ago. That marginal improvement is acting on our sense of daily gratitude like a hint of fresh herbs in a salad - brightening, warming, enhancing.
For us, autumn also means the celebration of the start of this GFJ business, which will be 11 years strong in October. One of the benefits of running a business based on a mission that relates more to people than to profit is that we continually look back as we go forward, back to what motivated us to start this business in the first place, and why we continue to put our work into it.
GFJ is a for-profit business and it serves a practical purpose, but it has also functioned as something of a refuge by representing a career path that doesn't conform to standard ideals of success. For years, people have shared that when they land on GFJ for the first time, they feel as if a part of them they weren't sure was legitimate has been 'found'. Does this desire to do work that also has an impact on others, and on the planet, while satisfying a love of food, exist? And our job listings, and stories, and newsletter answer back: yes, yes, yes.
Yet that people-over-profit mission also means we must continually acknowledge that the more we learn, the more we realize how much more there is to learn. We are grateful to keep learning alongside you.
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