A Table for Everybirdy: Lessons on Sharing, Greed, and Food Dignity

How a Catholic sermon transformed the way I looked at a busy week of neighborhood distributions, birthday bakes, and lakeside gatherings.

Aug 07, 2026

Hey everybirdy. Something to know about me: I’m religious. Not in an obnoxious way. I would say I’m a Christian with no specific denomination. But that’s not all. I respect all religions and honestly love learning about them. I believe my parents are the same way; they consider themselves Christian, but they also like studying different faiths and various sectors of Christianity. So, when Mom and Pop put on Pope Leo’s message before the gospel, I didn’t think twice. They don’t always watch his messages, but this past Sunday, they did. I was in the room, so I ended up listening and really feeling what he was saying, even without being Catholic.

Going into the weekend, I knew I was going to write a post about potlucks and how to budget for them. This week is unique because I actually have two potlucks on the schedule. At first, I planned to just talk about the budgeting side of things, but after listening to the pontiff’s sermon, a deeper purpose became blindingly clear. Pope Leo was talking about how there is, in fact, enough food for everyone in the world, but there is just too much greed. The part of the message that made me feel an absolute need to write this post was this quote:

“This spiritual sickness numbs the senses, which become intoxicated with wealth to the point of making people forget those who weep from hunger and cry out from thirst. Faced with the deserts of war and arrogance, let us consider that kindness. The Lord looked up to heaven, blessed, broke the loaves, and gave them to his disciples so that they could distribute them to the crowd. [1]”

As a non-Catholic who is trying her hardest to help everyone understand that food is good no matter where it comes from, his words spoke loudly to me. It felt like I was supposed to help spread this message, and I am going to honor those words. It’s important to understand that greed isn’t just something that happens to the ultra-rich; it can happen to anyone trying to climb their way up. If I’m being completely honest, I have felt that pull before, too. After all, at the end of this article, I’m going to ask you to become a paid subscriber so I can buy a laptop and help cover everyday expenses. So, I am in no way saying that I am better at being human than anyone else.

At the end of the day, it is all about give and take. If you have more than you need, share with your neighbor. Your only motive should be the simplest one: wanting to see your neighbor thrive. The way I see it, food banks and food distributions are a vital part of our community because grocery stores are sharing what they have. Yes, I understand the corporations aren’t exactly doing this out of the kindness of their hearts, but the spirit of the message still lives on.

If you need help finding a food bank near you, click this link and enter your zip code. It will show you all of the free food available to you.

Food Banks Near You

My Outfit of the Day. Where My earrings matched my shorts perfectly.

As I thought about all of this, I looked ahead to my unusually busy week. Having two potlucks, one on Wednesday and the other on Saturday, is definitely not normal for me, plus we have a birthday to celebrate on Friday. It made me realize that celebrations are a great way to show my friends and family how much I love them. One of my personal mottos is, “If the people we are celebrating go to bed hungry, they didn’t have a good day.” Thankfully, there has never been a birthday or a potluck where I have gone to bed hungry, whether in terms of food or in terms of soul. What are we really celebrating at a potluck? It’s simple: friendships, birthdays, and being able to share another month or year with the people we care about. I promise it’s a lot more positive than it sounds!

Some pictures I took on Wednesday that just showcase how pretty it was.

Wednesday’s Potluck: The “Tuesday Group” Reunion

The Tuesday Group for the Free Lunch Program has truly become a family. We work together and see each other every week, but there is something so different about our potlucks, which we actually host one day during the summer. This year it happened to take place on Wednesday. When we are working our normal shifts, we are completely focused on the people we serve. We are always rushing to make sure everything looks perfect for the clients walking through the line, keeping an eye out for allergies, and staying entirely on our toes. The Wednesday potluck is the one time we get to just breathe and enjoy each other’s company.

We have been doing this for a while now, so we all fit together naturally. This is my second year attending, and my younger brother David’s third year. It is just so peaceful. We gather at a house right by the lake, and it is wonderful to just sit back and look at the water. The only thing we have to consider when planning our dishes is that our group leader is plant-based. We don’t bring any meat or dairy, making sure to bring things that everyone can eat and enjoy together instead. But this year we did grill up some Italian Sausages (that the hosts had), and someone else brought some grilled veggies. Because everyone knows how much I love baking, they actually asked me to bring a treat this week. I was honored and decided to make black bean brownies.

By Wednesday night, my soul felt just as full as my stomach. Sitting around that gorgeous house by the lake, a place so amazing I could see myself writing there for hours, the conversation eventually turned to me. Everyone was curious about my life and this blog, which I had only ever mentioned to them in passing before. In that moment, I felt a deep sense of pride in myself that I haven’t felt in a long time. Yes, I am a writer. When I explained that I had just gotten my first paid subscriber, they asked what that meant and seemed genuinely happy for me. I have so many stories from these wonderful people who have accepted me into their circle. I will love each of them for as long as I live for the simple reason that I can be unapologetically myself around them without needing to explain a thing.

Just watching the rain come down from the spot where we have the Potluck.

Saturday’s Potluck: Friend Birthdays and Monthly Get-Together

Sometimes I look at our Saturday potluck group and wonder how we even started going, but the story is actually pretty funny. Years ago, we went to a local garage sale in the neighborhood where the potlucks are hosted. There were flyers on the table that read, “Pumpkin Roll. Volunteers Needed!” Having younger siblings, I knew exactly what kind of fun this meant and started asking questions.

The neighborhood has a perfect, U-shaped hill for rolling pumpkins. The kids grab their pumpkins at the top, roll them down, and if they don’t smash on the way down, the kids get to smash them at the bottom. It is always hilarious watching the little kids pick up the pumpkins and throw them onto the ground as hard as they can. (Don’t worry, we make sure every child has a guardian nearby, and we use small pumpkins for the toddlers).

The organizers gave me and my older brother, Noah (who happens to be the birthday boy today, August 7th!), the information. We started attending the meetings and volunteering. After a few years of this, Mom and Pop decided to join in on the volunteering, too, and the organizers were more than happy to have the extra hands. That is how we were first introduced to our friend (the host of the potlucks), but we didn’t start attending the actual potlucks until after the Solar Eclipse in 2024. Mom and our friend really hit it off, eventually connecting on Facebook, and a little while later, I became Facebook friends with her too. After a few months, our friend’s mom invited us to her birthday party. We went, and as they say in the movies, the rest was history. She invited us to their monthly potlucks, and we have missed very few of them over the last two years.

The absolute best part about this group of people is that they use our names. Coming from a family of eight people, it means a lot not to be referred to as just “So-and-so’s sister” or lumped together as “you guys.” We each have individual names, and they use them. It is such a small gesture, but it means the world to us. I can safely say the rest of my family feels the same way based on how I’ve heard them talk about it.

The Saturday potluck doesn’t have any strict rules. Most of the people who attend use the exact same community food resources that my family uses, so they completely understand when we bring in more unique ingredients. We recently received fresh peaches from a food distribution, which paired perfectly with a large donation of white chocolate chips given to me by the food bank where I volunteer. Everyone there knows how much I like to bake, so they had told me to take a whole box! For this weekend’s gathering, I am going to use them to bake a peach white chocolate bread.

The Final Message

If you have the ability to share food with your neighbors, do it. Nothing is stopping you. Let me tell you, you don’t need fancy ingredients or high-end kitchen equipment to have a wonderful time with your friends and family. Sometimes the simplest recipes are the ones that are cherished the most—not always because of the taste, but because people went completely out of their way to share their favorite foods with you.

Join the Flock!

If you want to grab the same budget-friendly baking tools I used today, you can find them curated right over on my Benable page.
Every time you bake a batch of these, remember that Robby’s Baking Therapy is all about finding a little peace of mind in the kitchen without breaking the bank. It’s my personal way of using baking as a tool for self-help and relaxation, and I am so incredibly grateful to have you along on this journey.

You can also find pay-what-you-want recipes and direct services on my Ko-fi. Plus, your support goes even further to help neighbors in need: for every $5 donated to Robby’s Baking Therapy, $1 goes directly to my local food bank.