By Abdul Pierre, Junior Marketing Coordinator
One of my fondest memories from the pandemic was my (virtual) family celebration. We are big food lovers, and when the pandemic Thanksgiving came around, we got creative in how we celebrated.
Around the Zoom table, we had family from around the country, from outside of the country, and also from the area. Some of my family members were less than an hour away. This was a pivotal moment for me during the pandemic – I hadn’t experienced the true scope of social distancing until then. Seeing my family who live so close to me and not being able to see them in person was difficult.
This is why my favorite part was the food exchange. Close family members arranged to come to houses to swap favorite dishes. It was like curbside pickup, but instead of paying for whatever you're picking up, it was an exchange of Haitian dishes.
Even though I was worried that the picking up of food would have defeated the whole purpose of the Zoom call and social distancing, I was ensured that there were more precautions taken when cooking the food that was "ordered."
My family also surprised me at how tech savvy they became. There was a whole WhatsApp group chat designated just for sharing what food everyone was cooking. If someone was making a dish you wanted and you were making a dish they wanted, it was a done deal.