Laura Appleseed

There is nothing more important than planting a seed. Laura Martin Bacon is planting seeds. And SoFAB is reaping what she has sown.

Many people have been generous about helping SoFAB rebuild our library which was largely turned to pulp by the flood waters after Hurricane Katrina. It was Chris Smith, our Collections Manager, acting on advice from librarian friends, who first began circulating the request for books in library circles. The librarians and libraries, especially the Arkansas State Library, were generous.

Then IACP , through the give-back committee, dispensed the idea that SoFAB would benefit from donations of cookbooks from its members, who were having their annual conference in New Orleans. The idea was refined further as SoFAB promised to inventory the donations and to further dispense those duplicate books to other local libraries and appropriate organization who had also lost their cookbooks after Katrina.

After the IACP conference, which Laura Martin Bacon attended, Laura began writing to key blogs and listserves for writers and readers about SoFAB's need to rebuild its collection. She has planted a seed in the entire United States. From her seeds the blogging world has relayed the message time and time again. I know that if I try to list them that I will leave some out. Newspapers in California have picked up the story further carrying seeds in the wind. Every time I see a box of these books come in, which is almost every day, I know that I have to thank the donor, but I also have to thank Chris, and the IACP give-back committee, and I have to thank that dynamo of passion and good will: Laura.

Thanks to you all soon the citizens of New Orleans - and SoFAB - will have a working, stocked library of cookbooks. For New Orleans is a city of cooks and cookbooks are not only read, but used. We appreciate it.

We've Started

I can finally announce that real work - the kind that stirs up dust - has begun in our exhibit spaces. This week-end we will begin setting up the library and uncrating the artifacts that have been in storage, and really beginning to plan the flow of the museum. People are beginning to join - at our specially discounted rate pre-opening rate - and they are beginning to volunteer. It is so exciting to see all of our dreams for a fabulous institution materialized.

In addition to the tangible progress that we are experiencing, people in other cities in the South and out of the South are offering to help through fundraising parties and through opportunities for us to appear and speak. And books are coming into our library. And photographs and other documents are being offered for the archive. Menus continue to be collected.

And we are making international connections to France and England. We hope that these connections will grow and reach into other countries.

Thanks to all of you for your support, your ideas and your imagination.

It Grows and Grows

The plans for the next steps for SoFAB are unfolding and we are closer and closer to taking the museum to opening. It is exciting beyond belief to have watched and shepherded the idea of a museum to where we are today. But it is also terrifying. There is so much to do, so much to think about, so much to look forward to...

As we get closer to opening, it is also possible to look back and see how far we have come. We have a serious menu collection, we have the beginnings of a library (despite having setbacks caused by Hurricane Katrina), and we have a budding collection of artifacts. This is due to the interest and generosity of many people. I thank all of them. Everyone who has sent us a menu or a book or an artifact has created yet another bit of foundation under our feet and given us a little moral and emotional boost.

We have also benefited from the time and talent of so many people who have given us their energy as gifts. I continue to be so humbled by their generosity and good will. And I am working for all of you. Thank you for working for SoFAB.