Prasad and veggies at the Fair Food warehouse
The Year of Living Lovingly

A couple of years ago CERES CEO, Cinnamon Evans, and I were on our way to a social enterprise conference.

For the next three days we we would be explaining to strangers what CERES was and what we did.

After years of refining Cinn had gotten it down to one line; “CERES connects people to the Earth” but she confessed what she really wanted to tell people was that CERES helps people fall in love with the Earth.

Her brave words sent a chill up my spine and I excitedly encouraged her to say it at the conference (Cinn did and it has since become CERES’ official mission). 

Since then Fair Food has been searching for similar words to sum up what we do, but despite our best efforts the magical phrase that captures who we are has remained elusive.

For a group of us led by marketing manager, Isabelle Fouard, the quest for the perfect words has become a kind of Holy Grail.

Experts have been brought in to talk to us about the way world-leading organisations have found theirs. 

We’ve tried many techniques; brainstorming, visioning, values sessions, long walks, long rides, sleeping on it, drinking wine and even asking mates down the road.

So far nothing has worked.

Our combined efforts have ranged from the earnest but unininspiring – Groceries for Good, to the saccharine, Packed with Love”, to the silly “Eat the change you want to see in the world” to the downright ridiculous, “Live More Betterer”.

Recent inspiration came during the Christmas break – I was jolted awake at 4am by the words “Live Lovingly”.

I knew Live Lovingly would be difficult to say quickly and could easily be mistaken for the name of a Scandinavian burlesque star, but I liked it.

And though deep down I knew Live Lovingly was never going to make it past the first pitch stage, I thought it really summed up how we try to be with the Earth and our community.

And though it’s corny it is the way we try to treat each other – be it farmer, worker, customer or community, it is the way we pack and deliver our orders, the packaging we choose, the electricity we use, where our compost goes, where our profits flow.

And while we won’t stop in our search for the perfect words, this year I know we’ll be trying our best to be living lovingly.

Welcome back to 2021

Chris

If you think you’ve got a Fair Food tagline please share it with us, clearly we need all the help we can get – send your words to info@ceresfairfood.org.au

Mo's new smile campaign
A Quick Help Mo Smile update

For those of you new to the Help Mo Smile story, just before the first lockdown our workmate and friend, Mo Nabaie, lost three of his front teeth and badly damaged his hard palate in a bike accident.

As well as the three implants Mo needed two operations to wire his palate back into place.

All up the operations and dental work would cost around $14,000.

Then COVID came, dentists closed and over winter, despite being in pain, Mo continued to run the Fair Food packing line through our busiest ever period.

When we emerged from lockdown Fair Food launched an appeal to raise money to help Mo get his smile back again.

We figured that even if half the target was raised it would go some way toward paying for his operations and replacing the temporary denture he was struggling with.

The appeal went live and to everyone’s amazement the Fair Food community raised the $14,000 within 12 hours.

Since the appeal Mo has had his two hard palate operations and has been recovering well.

Mo is due to have his new teeth implanted in the first week of February.

Deepest gratitude to all of you, we are looking forward to sharing the celebrations and smiles.

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