Hello fam!
We had an incredible January campaign with our “Comfort Foods”. We made 303 delicious home-cooked meals and had them distributed through our partnership with Feeding GA Families. Shout out to all of our volunteers and donors and a special thanks to Nadia at GoJuicy ATL for her continued support! And now… on to February.
ABBONDANZA PART 2!!!
This is our second year making Italian food in February and I couldn’t be more excited! If you know me, you’re already tired of me going on and on about my mom’s cooking and big family meals growing up. Today I want to tell you about a typical holiday meal for the Rotondas.
Around two in the afternoon, we’d crowd elbow to elbow around an small oval-shaped table in my grandparent’s cramped dining room. My grandmother always sat on the side closest to the kitchen entrance so she could shuttle in various dishes throughout the meal. First she brought out the anitpasto- meats, cheeses, olives and nuts. There was enough there to feed a small army. That was followed quickly by some kind of pasta, usually spaghetti with meatballs and sausage. At this point, you were usually pretty full so you had to pace yourself.
The next dish was usually some sort of chicken or fish. I was a kid so i usually tried to avoid this round! Still, that should have been enough food for an entire day. Just when you thought this meal would mercifully come to an end, my grandmother brought out something really heavy like lasagna. All you could do was take a deep breath, loosen your belt a notch, and dive in. I mean, this had to be the end right? There’s no way this old lady made even more food. If you thought that, you were wrong. Because she also made a turkey! I mean honestly … who does that?
Finally, you pushed yourself away from the table and rolled into the adjacent living room. This consisted mostly of football and snoring. I remember laying there thinking “why do my people do this to ourselves?”. However, my ponderings were cut short about half an hour later when my grandmother shouted out “who’s ready for coffee and dessert?”. And oddly enough, I always was.
This may seem like exaggeration but I can assure it really isn’t. More than likely, I’ve forgotten courses! However, it gives you a glimpse into what “Abbondanza” is all about. Great quantities of delicious food made with love from time honored recipes and consumed as a family. Re-read that last sentence. Isn’t that exactly what the Many Hands Project is all about?
Please support us this weekend as we try to give a sense of abbondanza to our friends and neighbors here in Atlanta. It may have been a while since they’ve had a homemade meal they could share with their loved ones and we are going to make that happen!
There are several ways you can help.
- You can donate by pushing the blue button below (venmo, paypal, etc).
- You can click here on our Amazon wish list https://a.co/3dHp8Jg and purchase some of the items we need.
- You can make a homemade meal and schedule a pickup or drop off with us for Friday 2/23 or Saturday 2/24.
- Or you can come to our house on Saturday 2/24 and Amy and I will feed you while you help feed others!
As always we greatly appreciate your love and support. this is a 100% volunteer driven organization so it’s you great people who really keep this going!
Vince Rotonda
Executive Director
Many Hands Project Inc.
At Many Hands we like to say “Work is love made visible”.