Letter to the Editor, West Marin Citizen

            For $125 on August 9 you can have lunch with celebrity chef Alice Waters, with food prepared by Margaret Grade and Daniel DeLong of Manka’s, as a benefit for the Point Reyes Farmers’ Market and Slow Food Nation.   I read this information in the Sunday S.F. Chronicle.  My question is: What does this event have to do with our nation, once called Point Reyes Nation? 

People in our towns have been growing, cooking and sharing food for decades, probably the most delicious and nutritious food you’ve ever eaten.  We have eaten together on the beach, in backyards, in community centers and in living rooms of all sizes. Our potlucks have been the heart and soul of keeping us connected and caring about each other. 

What a strange perversion of our intrinsic hospitality is this event that slices us into the haves and the have-nots at a time when affording basic food is a daily drama of epic proportion.  There will no doubt be people serving and helping who couldn’t possible afford to blow $125 on a fancy lunch prepared by chefs known for extravagant food. In effect, we are re-inventing the class system in the name of supporting nonprofits.

The time is coming when money will be the measure of nothing of value and sharing will be the currency of survival.  The trend of sharing food is beginning here, thanks to West Marin Commons.  Let’s keep feeding that movement with our imagination and our organizations. If we make generosity our local signature, everything else will follow.  

Elizabeth Whitney

Point Reyes Station