Lovin’ Spoonfuls

When artist and writer Patti Kessler Grabel was a child, she often stayed overnight at her grandparents’ Brooklyn apartment. The stays there were joyful and packed with life lessons that happened organically and were always infused with love. It was then that Grabel began her love affair with spoons, one that would inspire her to create a unique fundraiser for City Harvest.

Friday evenings at her grandmother’s house started with Shabbat dinner, which always included homemade challah bread. “We’d break the bread and make well wishes for the week,” said Grabel, who lives in Manhattan and has a house in Water Mill.

After dinner, Grabel, her brother and grandmother would get in the elevator holding an empty basket and make their way through the apartment building, knocking on each neighbor’s door. They’d say hello and collect a piece of bread from each neighbor, all of which went into the basket, along with stories heard that evening, snippets of lives lived in the building.

They’d return to her grandmother’s apartment where they’d soaked the pieces of bread overnight in sugar, vanilla, eggs and cream. Her grandmother would take her big wooden spoon, stirring in well wishes as Grabel sat wide-eyed at the table. “My grandmother would say the spoon is an extension of your hand and heart, your soul extending and infusing our love in the bread pudding. She said it takes time for stories to seep together and that they are ‘talking together in the bowl.’”

The next morning, she’d awake to the sweet smell of challah bread pudding and await the arrival of the neighbors who came back for their portion, another opportunity to welcome the day with the gift of giving.

So a few years ago when Grabel started to create pieces that celebrated the humble spoon, she knew she could not sell her artwork without “giving back to those whose spoons are empty. I called City Harvest and told them I wanted to donate a portion of my sales to help feed families in need.”

Through her affiliation with City Harvest, she learned the simple fact that its program feeds a family of four for $1. “It reminded me that a dollar has merit, it has value, it is useful,” said Grabel.

Armed with that information and with COVID-19 restrictions keeping many Manhattan residents, like Grabel, at their summer homes, she decided to combine the idea of filling other people’s spoons into an East End fundraiser for City Harvest. She went online and found smaller wooden spoons, like the size of a cereal spoon and got 10,000 of them. Grabel hit the back roads, turned on her infectious charm, and convinced dozens of places to put a mug filled with the spoons, each tied with a red ribbon to symbolize a commitment to unity and community, on their countertop. Customers can purchase them for $1.

Rather than take the time and resources to return to each place to collect the spoons after the 50 spoons were sold, the business makes a donation directly to City Harvest. Her goal was to raise $10,000, which she has already exceeded.

With each donation, she is reminded of her grandmother and how she stirred the batter for challah bread with her beloved spoon that has since been handed down to Grabel. Remarkably, despite pleas from her granddaughter, she did not hand down her famous recipe for challah bread pudding, saying that “like life you’ll figure it out.”

And she did. Over the years, Grabel has made her own version, as close to her grandmother’s as she could get. Turns out her grandmother was right.

“It’s a little of this and a little of that, but the key ingredient is love,” said Grabel.