Culinary Kindness

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is a journalist and culinary superintendent at sialababamak.pl. Monika likes to bring words, flavours and people together. She helps foreigners learn about Poland from the tastiest side. She also creates culinary spectacles in which she encourages participants to eat leftovers, breathe in the smells of the basement, and sprinkle food with golden dust.

During the pandemic we have learned that, in order to survive, we must be alone yet together. We must isolate, but should also help each other. Whether we like it or not, here is our lesson about boundaries, about community, about humility – the silver lining of the virus.

Never before have I been so strongly engaged in the supply chains of neighbours and friends and, in general, between people. At the very start of the pandemic, I wrote on my Facebook feed that I needed masks and gloves because I look after my 80-year-old mum, who is bedridden and in a high-risk group. The avalanche of help that came our way was overwhelming.

The first person to volunteer

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Monika Kucia:

is a journalist and culinary superintendent at sialababamak.pl. Monika likes to bring words, flavours and people together. She helps foreigners learn about Poland from the tastiest side. She also creates culinary spectacles in which she encourages participants to eat leftovers, breathe in the smells of the basement, and sprinkle food with golden dust.

Translation: Annie Jaroszewicz

Publish date: 11.12.2020

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Monika Kucia:

is a journalist and culinary superintendent at sialababamak.pl. Monika likes to bring words, flavours and people together. She helps foreigners learn about Poland from the tastiest side. She also creates culinary spectacles in which she encourages participants to eat leftovers, breathe in the smells of the basement, and sprinkle food with golden dust.

Imagine that instead of buying processed food from a hypermarket, you go to a garden and choose your own tomatoes; while there, you meet people who offer you a slice of rhubarb cake. This is how shopping looks in some food cooperatives – it’s how the world could look, too…

The main advantages of food cooperatives are access to healthy, fresh foodstuffs, the shortest possible supply chain, direct contact with the farmer, community building, and learning to compromise. The cooperatives rely on trust, personal commitment, joint effort and faith in the belief that supporting producers helps build a better world. Participation in a cooperative is also a genuine counter to the current food system. It demonstrates alternative ways to obtain food, which are closely linked to values such as respect, responsibility, balance and moderation.

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Let’s Cooperate

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