[Bookstoprisoners] food for the confernece

[Sand and Sea Sells Used Books Etc.]

I agree with Jacqueline's points.  Thank you for giving us your personal and professional opinions and observations.  You have put a lot of thought and time into this response.  Your efforts are much appreciated.  

Deb

Deb Sanderson
Owner/Buyer
Sand and Sea Sells Used Books Etc.
www.sandncsells.com


  ----- Original Message ----- 
  From: Jacqueline Hannah 
  To: bookstoprisoners at lists.chambana.net 
  Sent: Saturday, August 11, 2007 5:52 PM
  Subject: [Bookstoprisoners] food for the confernece


  Hello all,

  Barbara called and shared with me that there were strong concerns about our current plans to source over half the food for the conference from Strawberry Fields due to their recent closing of their deli and they way in which they fired the deli staff.  I just wanted to share some thoughts on this issue. 

  First, I respect the concerns about supporting Strawberry Fields (SF) at this time and applaud the source of those concerns which I understand being to not want to support a business that treats their employees unfairly.  Will not allowing SF to cater our event make a statement to the owners about their practices?  As someone who worked for Paul Dohme, the owner of SF, and Jack Wallace, the general manager I can honestly say, no, I don't believe so.  While enough pressure and loss in sales might cause a one-time reversal, the thoughtless treatment of their employees based on their whims and their profits is not new at SF and is intrinsic to the way they believe in doing business.  I strongly believe that not hiring them to cater our event and making it clear they are losing over $500 worth of business due to their recent actions might send a message, but will not change "business as usual" at SF. 

  Some other points:
  - we are receiving a 15% discount on the food due to the generosity of the catering manager, who is giving us his personal discount by claiming to be a member of our group because he respects the work we do and knows the owners would never otherwise authorize such a discount for *any* organization or charity.   Due to this discount, we are getting a large amount of healthy, locally-made and mostly organic food for our conference at prices that rival what you'd pay for the awful catering available at corporate chains like County Market.  
  - we will still be supporting local business, which will keep more of our money in our local economy; we are still supporting organic food, which improves food safety and the future of the environment for us all.
  - SF will make almost no profit off of the catering we have ordered because a significant chunk of their profit margin will be eaten up by the discount we are receiving 
  - while we can all agree that the recent treatment of SF's employees was unacceptable, I have to tell you honestly as someone who has been in retail management for well over a decade that SF treated me and my fellow employees better than anywhere else I have ever worked, save the food co-op which is in a class by itself.   Reality is that the employees at most all of the businesses you patronize are treated no better than those at SF and most are treated worse.  If you have ever had to work in food service or retail, you will know what I say is true.  SF has very good benefits for such a small business - many businesses as small as them offer no health benefits or very minimal ones, SF has very good ones.   They also offer decent dental and life benefits at a reasonable price.  They treat you with more respect than most retail businesses out there.  It feels somewhat arbitrary to me to single out SF for boycotting based on this one incident.  
  - catering food for a large group is an art and a lot of work and I say this as someone with 3 years of management experience in catering.  Our current plan is very affordable, easy and will work without hitches while supporting organic, local food.  That's pretty impressive.  

  After saying all of this, I have no issues with going through another locally-owned business that we can feel good about for the food - but will they be able to give us the same price?  Will they also deliver and bring all the plates and everything we need to serve the food and set it up at no charge so we can focus on the conference?  Who will organize this? 

  If someone else wants to step up to organize food for a group of shifting size on a very small budget and has confidence they can do this and make sure we have everything we need and have enough food while being able to feel we are supporting the most socially just food/business we can on our budget I thrilled to hear it and I will with great willingness step down from being one of the main food coordinators for the event. If I didn't have a very demanding full time job I would offer to source all the of the food from the co-op at cost and cook it all myself as it is something I enjoy and I am trained in - but years of catering large groups and of throwing large events for local non-profits has taught me to be a realist and keep the plan as simple as possible for the greatest chances of success.  ;) 

  Respectfully,
  Jacqueline Hannah





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