Last Sunday Hazon hosted our annual BIG board meeting.  The board itself meets four times a year, but January’s meeting is the only time when the staff is invited and everyone is in the same place.  It’s kind of a big deal around here.

As with every business meeting these days, serving food is essential – Michael Pollan writes in In Defense of Food, “It is apparently considered gauche at a business meeting or conference if a spread of bagels, muffins, pastries and soft drinks is not provided at frequent intervals.” 

What Pollan doesn’t say is that, of all the aspects of a given meeting, food is probably the thing that attendees grumble about most.  Maybe the bagels were too hard, the muffins too sticky, and would it have killed them to have herbal tea with the coffee?  In the end, it seems getting the food “right” is almost as important as the meeting agenda. 

Unfortunately, finding the right food when your organization is committed to health, sustainability and inclusive Jewish community is not particularly straight forward. 

Hazon’s mission is to create a healthier and more sustainable Jewish community as a step towards a healthier and more sustainable world for everyone.  We also thrive on bringing people together across difference – including different understandings and observance levels of kashrut.  If we just wanted to serve kosher food, that’d be no problem here in New York City.  And if we just wanted sustainable (local, organic etc.) food, that’d also be easy enough.  But because we wanted to make the meeting inclusive to the diverse Jewish identities that would be in the room, the food we served needed to be both kosher AND sustainable.

The meeting was scheduled from 11-5pm, which essentially left us serving brunch and an afternoon snack.  In theory we wanted to steer clear of the ”bagel and muffin” tray Pollan mentions and also the dreaded unseasonal fruit platter that seems to plauge every meeting, kiddush table, and simcha.  But when you’re planning to serve food to 25+ people and you want there to be a certain level of ease and professionalism (and as few grumbles as possible), you are basically at the mercy of caterers.  The kosher, vegetarian Indian and Chinese places we often use for smaller meetings were out,  and Caravan of Dreams (New York’s de facto Mecca of vegan, organic, kosher-certified cuisine) was too heavy for brunch.

So, after a good deal of searching for a restaurant that could fit our needs, we ended up with a kosher bagel platter with several types of cream cheese, two green salads with a gelatinous mystery dressing…and a freaking unseasonal fruit platter.  The whole thing cost about $17 per person.  I could feel the the industrial food world pointing and laughing as we sat there talking about Hazon’s amazing programs around sustainable food while nibbling on flavorless winter watermelon. 

Our snack was a little better – organic dried apricots and pecans, organic salsa and hummus with carrot sticks and crackers, and organic cookies (Newan’s Own Ginger O’s and Hermits), all kosher, and all purchased at a food coop for about $1 per person.  In retrospect, we could have picked up bagels cream cheese, a basket of whole citrus fruits, apples and pears, and a bag of organic coffee grounds for a fraction of the cost of a catered brunch - but that would have meant more staff time brewing, preparing and plating the food – on SUNDAY – instead of it being delivered on a convenient tray.   

At the meeting, Hazon’s COO Cheryl Cook declared that this would be the last board meeting where the food we served did not match our oranizational values.  Gulp.  We’ll keep you posted as we strive to work our way out of foodie hypocrite-dom – any suggestions you have along the way would be greatly appreciated.