Your gifts are welcome here.

When I left my job at Facebook in 2021 after working in tech for 17 years, I thought I would start a company focused on helping people have more intentional relationships with technology. I realized along the way that first comes more intentional relationships with ourselves. What are we really hungry for? What am I hungry for? M.F.K. Fisher wrote, “There is communion of more than our bodies when bread is broken and wine is drunk. And that is my answer, when people ask me: Why do you write about hunger, and not wars or love?” 

I realized I was hungry for many things that the dominant culture in our society does not address. Reciprocity. Trust. Ease. Deep connection to each other and the planet. I cooked my feelings. What does gratitude taste like? I wrote recipes as feelings, and they became a glossary of creative transformation. What do I want to cultivate in myself, and in the world?

This process started inside me – what am I hungry for? – and touched many people. The people I cooked for – family, friends, neighbors – and the people with whom I shared my recipes through my newsletter, Instagram, and Facebook. Over time, as I became more in touch with who I was, the community dimension became stronger. I found myself experiencing the most joy cooking with other women, on ladies weekends, retreats, for new home dedications, impending births, tea parties, dinner parties, any reason to gather. I became more deeply connected with the organizations in my town that bring people together around food. I joined the volunteer committee that runs the Hastings Farmers Market and joined the board of the organization that supports the Hastings Food Pantry and youth programs. 

What I love about community work is that it’s like a potluck. Everyone brings something to the table. It’s messy sometimes, and beautiful too. To experience the feeling of everyone showing up as themselves and creating something new together, that’s also very old. Caring for each other. Feeding each other. The Kwakwaka'wakw, one of many First Nation and Native American tribes in the Pacific Northwest to practice potlatch ceremonies – even when they risked arrest when potlatches were outlawed for decades – describe the intent of the potlatch as “to give,” a celebration of abundance through the redistribution of wealth marking special occasions like births, deaths, and marriages.

We can give the most when our cups are full. Like many people living through the COVID-19 pandemic, I came to value solitude even more. Experiences in which I could have my own autonomy, and still feel connection to others, fill my cup in a meaningful way. I love jigsaw puzzles, for example, and I love to trade them with my puzzle club of ladies in my neighborhood who also love puzzles. Celebrating alone and together gives me energy that flows into other aspects of my life, including in-person gatherings. 

What if we all could experience that feeling of autonomy in communion? What if we could take the magic of a ladies’ weekend or volunteer work and distribute that knowledge of how to create it – a cookbook, if you will – so that it’s accessible for people to cultivate in their own lives and communities? What if the “production” we invested in was not to amass capital and extract labor, but to share the abundance we have and create something regenerative? This is the spirit of a “potluck production.” 

Potluck Production is a production company. We produce media, products, and experiences that honor connection through individual expression. How you embody who you are, what you’re hungry for, how you bring that to the table.

We’re starting with stories. Who are the people that create community, here in Hastings-on-Hudson, where I live? How do they express themselves, connect to others, and to the land that supports us? What are the bigger stories these stories connect to? We’re partnering with the Hastings Farmers’ Market to record and share these stories as part of its 25-year celebration.

If you have a story to tell, or a gift to share that fits this feeling, let’s connect. Welcome to Potluck Production. Your gifts are welcome here.