Cafeteria Staff Exchange Program
Collaborative project with Spencer Byrne-Seres
Featuring Laura Booth, Monique Lopez and Irene Prasad from the Native American Youth and Family Center (NAYA), and Ruby Sims-Suell and Virginia Mulbey from Martin Luther King Jr. School
15 dishes, 100+ people, 4 days to prepare and cook
Portland, Oregon, USA
May 2017
The Cafeteria Staff Exchange Program is a project envisioned as a creative solution to providing lunches for Assembly, Portland State University's MFA in art and social practice's annual social practice weekend. The goal is to bring together cafeteria staff from both NAYA and MLK Jr. School in an effort to develop conversation and reflection on nutrition, how to provide meals, high volume cooking, and our relationship to the food sources that surround us. Who are the staff working tirelessly at NAYA and MLK Jr. School? What is their relationship to food? How would they collaboratively design a menu for Assembly? Where do the recipes they use come from, and what might they cook if they could cook anything at work?
Members of the cafeteria staff from both NAYA and MLK Jr. School participated in a summit to develop a menu for Assembly. The project culminated as lunches prepared for each day of Assembly, inspired by the recipes and ideas generated during the exchange. The project is documented through custom paper placemats that we produced with notes, photographs and images from the project.
Featuring Laura Booth, Monique Lopez and Irene Prasad from the Native American Youth and Family Center (NAYA), and Ruby Sims-Suell and Virginia Mulbey from Martin Luther King Jr. School
15 dishes, 100+ people, 4 days to prepare and cook
Portland, Oregon, USA
May 2017
The Cafeteria Staff Exchange Program is a project envisioned as a creative solution to providing lunches for Assembly, Portland State University's MFA in art and social practice's annual social practice weekend. The goal is to bring together cafeteria staff from both NAYA and MLK Jr. School in an effort to develop conversation and reflection on nutrition, how to provide meals, high volume cooking, and our relationship to the food sources that surround us. Who are the staff working tirelessly at NAYA and MLK Jr. School? What is their relationship to food? How would they collaboratively design a menu for Assembly? Where do the recipes they use come from, and what might they cook if they could cook anything at work?
Members of the cafeteria staff from both NAYA and MLK Jr. School participated in a summit to develop a menu for Assembly. The project culminated as lunches prepared for each day of Assembly, inspired by the recipes and ideas generated during the exchange. The project is documented through custom paper placemats that we produced with notes, photographs and images from the project.
