St. John's Cookbook 2010
Forward by Kathy Roberg

Food comes first. No food, no life.  Food is utterly essential to human existence from a biological standpoint.  However, food is also a means of sharing support, caring, joy, celebration, sorrow, friendship.  Food is a business for the farmer, food is pleasure for the gardener, food is a commodity for the distributor.  Television food shows, and the chefs who host them, are becoming icons of American culture.  Food binds together family.  Food can be a symbol of class (if you are accustomed to eating caviar).  Food can be symbolic of religious ceremonies (matzo balls and the Eucharist). 

However, it is unfortunately a fact that food is not equally distributed nor available to people throughout the world.  The access to a garden or the means to grow or purchase food is not accessible to all.  Haiti is a country that produces less than ½ of the food that its people need and due to its dire economic condition, depends upon donations to make up the remainder.

Here at St. John’s, it is fitting that we use food to do our part.  We bring together our best collection of recipes that provide comfort, joy, celebration, sustenance and routine into a volume that will be sold throughout our community.  It is a casserole of recipes, a collection of all the best, put together in one dish, served up in a time of need. 

With the sale of each of these books, we have the ability to put a meal on a table in Haiti.  We provide resources to rent some land and buy some pumpkin seeds that will result in the incredible pumpkin soup that is offered to each mission team when we go to Thiotte.  We provide the money that can buy the rice and the beans and a bit of lamb to make a feast for the family.  We provide the money that can buy the onion sets, since, (it seems to me) onions are served in a bowl as a vegetable, not a condiment, so a lot of onions need to be grown.  Maybe with these resources they can develop beyond food for the table and produce the bush that has a leaf that when used as a tea can actually help control malaria in their country.

It is fitting that we put together this cookbook, this casserole of hope.  Then with the sale of these recipes, we deliver the food to our friends in Haiti. 

It is just what good neighbors do.

Kathy Roberg, RN, MS, CCRC