Beyond FOOD: Bill Penzey for President

Why not put a spice man in the White House? Bill Penzey, owner of Penzey’s Spices of Brookfield, Wisconsin, knows his way around the world. He’s gone to the source for many of the spices he sells, and cares about the people who work hard to provide us with the seasonings we love—and so often take for granted.

Bill’s note from his company’s Holiday 2005 catalog reveals once again that he understands what many politicians seem to have forsaken (and what this blog’s really all about): the golden rule. In this note, though, he’s writing not about spice suppliers in India or the Caribbean, but about another group of people who favor flavorful food: the people of New Orleans.

“We let the survivors down in the days after (Katrina),” he writes. “It is going to take a lot of love to fill the hole dug in those four or five days of desperation.”

Bill then goes on to suggest a surprisingly simple way to help: “If there is a silver lining to this hurricane it is that now people across America are getting a chance to meet their fellow Americans from the Gulf Coast in a way that never would have happened without this storm. Chances are there are many of them in your town right now. See if you can’t find a way to spend some time with them. Speaking from my experiences, both from travel and the decades of interacting with our customers in the region, I think you will find them a remarkable group of people. In some ways, their saving grace, the reason that they will get through all this and rebuild, is that what they value the most can’t be washed away in a flood. For this part of the country, maybe more than any other region of America, it is not objects, but relationships that define a good life. Their tremendous love of spending time together with family and friends, oftentimes over really good food, is something we could all use a little bit more of in our lives.”

Wouldn’t it be refreshing to hear a politician speak from the heart like that? I’m telling you, Bill’s our man.

Photo credit: © FOTOLIA garrigues