After approximately 1 year of planning, preparing, and putting forth full efforts to bring Karma Kitchen to the great city of Chicago, the time has finally come! On Sunday, July 11, 2010, Karma Kitchen Chicago opened its doors in collaboration with Klay Oven Restaurant located in the River North area of the Windy City.
Prior to the launch, the Karma Kitchen team held a volunteer orientation at the restaurant. The majority of the volunteers had never even experienced a Karma Kitchen before, but as the orientation came to an end, it was apparent that the synergies began to manifest themselves and that the Karma Kitchen concepts were coming to light. Although a Karma Kitchen opening day is slightly different from the opening day for a baseball team, the team still had the same goal: to make sure we hit it out of the park for all of our guests!
The folks out in Chi-town have done it -- for quite some time they have been planning a Karma Kitchen in the Windy City, and tomorrow, they launch their pilot. Every second Sunday of the month, for July, August and September, volunteers will take over Klay Oven Restaurant in Chicago and serve guests the gift of a meal. Of course, the meal is an excuse -- the whole idea is to create an entire experience of generosity, inviting guests to pay-forward the gift. In keeping this chain going, both guests and volunteers help to create a future that moves from transaction to trust, from self-oriented isolation to shared commitment and from fear of scarcity to celebration of abundance.
When: 2nd Sundays of July, August, September, Noon to 3
To keep the experience fresh and give us all an opportunity to go a little deeper, Karma Kitchen now has a theme each Sunday! Sample themes: Beginnings, Art & Healing, Joy, Stillness... Each theme is accompanied by a related activity that serve as an invitation to "Step up" the generosity and inspiration in our lives. From self-addressed postcards filled out with intentions for the year, to handmade cards with heartfelt messages written out to families undergoing tough times and collaborative collages like the one attached, each week results in something utterly unique, thought-provoking and delightful!
Two weeks ago, our theme was joy and we asked people to share what makes them smile. And then, Sachi put all of it together on a wonderful larger-than-life collage that looked like this:
Below are some of the responses to "What makes you smile?":
"hot chocolate on blustery day", "when someone asks me, 'what makes you smile?'", "a kiss on the cheek", "kids laughing", "Audrey Hepburn riding a scooter with Gregory Peck", "cool breeze on my face all night long", "tara watching over us in a corner", "scuba diving", "to see others gain confidence in themselves", "being unconventional and hand-gliding", "connection", "a good meal with Idrens", "meeting new people", "when someone gives me a compliment", "praying", "my 20-year-old sons knock-knock jokes", "labs (dog kind)", "unconditional love amongst brederin and sisterin", "good food", "making someone else smile", "look of love and loveliness", "when I see a friend I haven't seen in a long time", "when someone gives me a compliment", "friendship", "random talks with strangers", "a really funny joke", "hummingbirds", "babies laughing", "when someone says of-ten instead of often", "unintrerrupted horizons", "when someone makes me feel special", "sunshine", "happy, free animals", "breaking my expectations", "wow" ... and of course, the infamous: "when people do impressions of other people."
Oh, and here one more: "Joy: my 2-year-old running & jumping into my lap, beaming with joy, saying: 'mama, mama, it's green!' Then he showed me a leaf."
The colorful collage will be anonymously left at the door steps of Smile Card team volunteer who was recently hospitalized.
Karma Kitchen has always been a collective space for people to step into that space of positive intention within themselves ... but it's great to see it manifest as collaborative art too!
In a little over two months the phenomenal team of volunteers in Washingon DC have Karma Kitchen running full steam! From a small restaurant in the nation's capital, a series of humble ripples travel out into the world each Sunday. An anonymous gift of flowers is left by a guest on the Kindness table one week, a child's day is "made" on another when a server tags her with a kiddie book. A volunteer visiting from England declares her love for The Cheesecake Factory during orientation, only to have a random guest walk in later that day -- with the gift of Cheesecake Factory cheesecake for the restaurant :-) These are just a few of the "magical" moments we've heard of from the other coast --- and here are some more quick "highlights" culled from the Crew Thank You notes co-ordinators Nirali, Aparna and Sala have sent out in the past weeks...
When we first started Karma Kitchen next to a tattoo parlor in South Berkeley, we had no idea that two years later, we'd still be breaking traffic records and telling powerful tales of generosity. So all this is a wonderful surprise.
A royal shocker, though, is that in March 2009, we'd hear weekly stories of raw goodness coming from another Karma Kitchen on the other side of the country! In less than a month of operation, the Washington, DC KK is making waves -- volunteer rosters are already filled for the next three weeks, last weekend, they broke their own two-week-old record with 72 guests, other bloggers are already writing about it, their weekly updates are full of stories and cheer that makes everyone wants to give.
And get this -- they've even got Karma Kitchen t-shirts! :)
Great work, KK-DC!
Here's a photo from their opening weekend, which included various cameo appearances from our west-coast and New York posses:
In demand-pull systems, emergence is inevitable and beautiful – as Karma Kitchen continues upping the goodness in Berkeley week in and week out, a group of volunteers in Washington D.C. are fired up for an experiment of their own in generosity! This Sunday, the India Polo Club, a Nepali-Indian restaurant in downtown D.C., will open its doors from noon to 3 and volunteers will serve a vegetarian meal on a total pay-it-forward basis. So if you or someone you know will be in the area, tell em to drop in!
What’s amazing is that none of the core volunteers, the restaurant manager, or the owner have ever been to Karma Kitchen. That, I suppose, is the contagiousness of the gift economy – and the power of its example. In D.C., something very interesting happened:
The first Karma Kitchen Newsletter of 2009 went out this morning -- it shares some of the highlights from recents weeks as well as exciting developments just around the corner...
Dear Friends,
"In this life we cannot do great things, only small things with great love." - Mother Teresa
Small Things, Great Love
In the last five months, Karma Kitchen has been witness to many "small things" and much great love.This Sunday soon after the restaurant opened, a woman walks in with a handpicked bouquet of yellow flowers for the "Karma Patch' table. A little later a bright pyramid of lemons finds its way there through another guest. On the Kindness Table out front someone leaves a beautiful knit cap for a baby. A guest asks a server if there are any 7 or 8 year olds in the restaurant and when answered in the affirmative, pulls out a brand-new book, removes the receipt from inside it and asks that it be delivered to the child anonymously. On the first Sunday of the New Year one among the 130 guests served that day handed us an envelope that she couldn't fit into our box. "It's a gift someone asked me to pass on," she says. Inside is a beautiful calligraphied card along with a sum of money. A short note on the back explains that the Chinese characters on the card denote the phrase "Endless Possibilities".
From long-time Karma Kitchen Volunteer Lalita P. ...
"As we ease into the new year, it seems that the world is filled with "what if's" and the current of fear mingled with hope and positive change continues to flow through our everyday lives. But I know that despite all that uncertainty, one thing will stay stable: the human tendency for giving. And on a street corner in Berkeley, disguised as an endearing restaurant, Karma Kitchen is calmly nestled in the understanding that come what may, giving is not going anywhere. As a volunteer, guest, and fellow experimenter, I have slowly deepened my understanding of how Karma Kitchen is a vehicle for exchange. One example out of many, proves that Karma Kitchen activities are touching lives even outside of Berkeley.
I recently began working in an elementary school in Concord, CA. This is a Title 1 school in a kind of sketchy area, where many people live in fear of not having enough food, being taken by immigration, or such things as being jumped on the street. Unfortunately, a few days before Thanksgiving, this last thing happened to an elderly gentleman. The staff at school heard about it, and decided to help out. Below is an excerpt from the letter:
"November 21st, a 75 year old man was physically accosted at an apartment complex close to [the school]. His name is CS. and he lives with one of our p.m custodians. CS is on a social security supplementary income and had to be hospitalized due to the attack. He was released from the hospital on Dec. 10th; however, CS is still having trouble walking. This attack occurred in our community. The teachers and staff at [our school] are inviting everyone in the community to donate $1.00 or more towards a Safeway gift card for CS...Let's join together to show CS we care..."
So, as I read this, and my heart tugged at the thought of this elder man without food...especially when people all around him were getting together and enjoying their holiday meals. I thought, "Oh, it would be great if he could experience Karma Kitchen!" But then I pictured him trekking out there, not being able to walk, and thought it would be easier for him if Karma Kitchen came to him. To make a long story shorter, and to my and school staff amazement, $101 that guests from Karma Kitchen generously paid forward for their meal experience went to feed a struggling elder man who had never even heard of Karma Kitchen.
There may be uncertainties and fears of economic strife, still, the experiment of giving that guests partake in when they encounter Karma Kitchen is strong and flows beyond the welcoming front doors. CS received the gift of food (and a smile card!) through the kind acts of anonymous guests even though he wasn't physically in the restaurant. And the experiment continues!"
When we started Karma Kitchen at Taste of Himalayas, we pondered our traffic -- Sunday lunch at a Nepali restaurant is an off-peak situation, there is very little foot traffic (unlike the post-football-game traffic we got on Telegraph) during those hours, it's a bigger restaurant, and so on. We hoped for 70-80 on good days and ultimately hitting the "four stages of sustainability."
Well, it seems that we're there in less than three months. Three weeks ago, we hit record traffic of 110 guests. Week before last, we matched it again. And then last weekend, we knocked it out of the ball-park with 130 guests! One diner said, "This is my third time trying to get in. I feel so lucky I got in!" And then after his experience, he adds: "I own a restaurant in the heart of Sebastapol. I'd love to bring Karma Kitchen there."
Two weeks back, an 18-year-old spent four hours at Karma Kitchen. The next week, UC Berkeley's Daily Cal did a front-page story that included a rough-cut video and this beautiful photo:
Driving over to Karma Kitchen this week after a morning of wind and drizzle, a rainbow across the San Mateo bridge promised a many-splendored afternoon. And the universe, as always delivered. Last Sunday the Farmer's Market returned to Karma Kitchen overflowing our offerings table with heaped baskets of strawberries, persimmons, grapes and much much more! In a gesture of gratitude, the farmers were tagged with hand delivered meals from the restaurant complete with lassis and dessert (needless to say they were thrilled :)) Many beautiful stories from the afternoon ...
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