Yeah, there’s just something about Food. The chef Thomas Keller said life is better no matter what your circumstances are when you get together and eat around the table. He probably said it a little bit nicer.
The way you lived this day and then wrote it down is exactly the kind of story so many of our families and loved ones need to see in the world.
What stays with us most is how you hold both sides of Amy’s line at once: “celebrate independence, yours or someone else’s”. You’re out there with a grill in a shopping cart, ten thousand steps without leaving your corner, salmon and skirt steak stretched with SNAP and ingenuity, and at the same time you’re taking every call, patching brothers together, sitting with the truth that their twenty minutes runs out and yours doesn’t. The joy and the ache sit right next to each other, and you refuse to drop either one.
For the kids and caregivers we walk alongside — many of them with fathers or sons still inside — this is the kind of “first Fourth” that gives real hope. Not a fairytale of everything being fixed, but a life moving forward, still tethered to the men you love, still cooking for “your people”, still turning a motel placement into a lanai and a yard where work gets lined up instead of time. The image of clamshells going down the hallway, plates handed to neighbors who don’t ask questions, is its own small revolution after decades of being told exactly when and what to eat.
Our work at the Appleberry Prison Foundation is rooted in these exact intersections — families on the outside carrying the weight of someone’s sentence, men and women coming home after long bids, kids trying to make sense of what “independence” means when their parent is still eating the holiday menu behind a wall. Reading pieces like this helps them see that rebuilding is possible, that staying connected matters, and that there are people out here who understand what it means to celebrate your own freedom without forgetting who’s still locked down.
Thank you for telling this day with such care. We’d be honored to stay in conversation with you and keep learning from the ways you’re stitching together inside and outside, one plate and one phone call at a time. 🧡
Wow, thank you for such a thoughtful and comprehensive comment. I’m glad this Peace landed so well I feel good about it as well. Yes here’s to continuing the conversation.
This is so great, Adam!!! I love that you cooked for people — and it looked like a delicious feast! 🤤 I joke with one of my friends, Chris Ridley, about trying to get Union Supply to stock the tomatoes my husband and I are growing in our garden right now, just to be able to get some to him. (They supply the seasonal packages here in NC.) Too bad it’s not like old times, where people could send packages of homecooked food!!
Thanks for your heart, man. This year was new independence here too and the food... yeah, the food was central. 🖤
Yeah, there’s just something about Food. The chef Thomas Keller said life is better no matter what your circumstances are when you get together and eat around the table. He probably said it a little bit nicer.
The way you lived this day and then wrote it down is exactly the kind of story so many of our families and loved ones need to see in the world.
What stays with us most is how you hold both sides of Amy’s line at once: “celebrate independence, yours or someone else’s”. You’re out there with a grill in a shopping cart, ten thousand steps without leaving your corner, salmon and skirt steak stretched with SNAP and ingenuity, and at the same time you’re taking every call, patching brothers together, sitting with the truth that their twenty minutes runs out and yours doesn’t. The joy and the ache sit right next to each other, and you refuse to drop either one.
For the kids and caregivers we walk alongside — many of them with fathers or sons still inside — this is the kind of “first Fourth” that gives real hope. Not a fairytale of everything being fixed, but a life moving forward, still tethered to the men you love, still cooking for “your people”, still turning a motel placement into a lanai and a yard where work gets lined up instead of time. The image of clamshells going down the hallway, plates handed to neighbors who don’t ask questions, is its own small revolution after decades of being told exactly when and what to eat.
Our work at the Appleberry Prison Foundation is rooted in these exact intersections — families on the outside carrying the weight of someone’s sentence, men and women coming home after long bids, kids trying to make sense of what “independence” means when their parent is still eating the holiday menu behind a wall. Reading pieces like this helps them see that rebuilding is possible, that staying connected matters, and that there are people out here who understand what it means to celebrate your own freedom without forgetting who’s still locked down.
Thank you for telling this day with such care. We’d be honored to stay in conversation with you and keep learning from the ways you’re stitching together inside and outside, one plate and one phone call at a time. 🧡
Wow, thank you for such a thoughtful and comprehensive comment. I’m glad this Peace landed so well I feel good about it as well. Yes here’s to continuing the conversation.
This is so great, Adam!!! I love that you cooked for people — and it looked like a delicious feast! 🤤 I joke with one of my friends, Chris Ridley, about trying to get Union Supply to stock the tomatoes my husband and I are growing in our garden right now, just to be able to get some to him. (They supply the seasonal packages here in NC.) Too bad it’s not like old times, where people could send packages of homecooked food!!
If only…
So much fun! Thank you for sharing your food and thoughts.
Amy is just angel for all of us. Happy First Fourth for you. Next party I’m gonna cook curry!
I’m gonna hold you to that🤙🏼
I walked away from this piece appreciating my freedom and sending good thoughts to those who dream of liberty. Well done, sir ❤️
Thank you for your kind words
You guys had a fantastic day! So glad for all of you. (I wish I could have had some of your barbecue.)
You’re right—more chairs next year
Yeah, truly, the stars aligned. The word blessing gets over used, but it was that.
Celibrate independence, mine or someone else's.. I love the line..
Food, friends, being together, that’s all we need. You really made the difference.
Thanks for reading!