Stories of Arrival in Collaboration with Project Feast
As the project has grown, so too Merna’s commitment to nourishing community partnerships. In 2015 Merna established an intergenerational collaboration with Project Feast, an organization that serves refugee women that was located at the Tukwila Community Center and is now in Kent. The Project Feast mission is to “transform the lives of refugees and immigrants by providing pathways to sustainable employment in the local food industry and to enrich communities through exploring ethnic culture and cuisine.” The anthology that resulted from this collaboration brims with memories of homeland gardens, watercolors of fruits and vegetables, treasured family and community recipes, and interviews with the Project Feast cooks conducted by the students. The poetry connects food to place, family, culture and memory. The poems also address themes of food scarcity and survival. The anthology is titled Our Table of Memories: Food and Poetry of Spirit, Homeland and Tradition
Our Table of Memories invites readers to consider the spicy, delicious connections between food, poetry and stories. The food-themed poetry and recipes are part of an exciting first-time collaboration between Project Feast and the Stories of Arrival: Youth Voices Poetry Project, edited and directed by Merna Ann Hecht. Both serve to help refugees and immigrants share their strengths and experiences, and by doing so, literally and metaphorically nourish the larger community.