Hi, Robert. I started a catered and event company 45 years ago. Over the course of those years, my husband and then our sons joined us. We became a family-owned business and celebrated our 40th year when we sold to a local restaurant group during Covid. Our sons decided to seek new careers and doing great. My husband and I took two years off to decide what we wanted to do with the rest of lives. Last year, at the ages of 75 and 74 respectively, we started a foundation called One Table Together. We bring together 80 high schools students with professional facilitators over a shared dinner that is prepared by the school culinary students (touching lives in another way) to discuss how, as a school community, they can build better relationships in their very diverse student body and create better communication with less discrimination, bullying and biases. We held our first one just this last week to rave reviews. Some of the students are now going to speak to the entire student body on what they learned and how they can work together to better their school. We certainly understand that one dinner will not change the course of generational discrimination, but it is a start and we will continue to work with this school as we collaborate with other organizations to provide follow up resources to engage students over and over.
For us, it took those two years to get over the loss of "purpose" to create a worthwhile program that will change generations. It will, in fact, give employers a better workforce that knows how to get along and work as a team. I absolutely felt the sense of loss, but we haven take those leadership skill we learned in owning our company to find a second purposeful life.
Regards,
Maxine Turner, Founder (retired) Cuisine Unlimited Catering & Special Events
Would it be possible for you to speak at a future assembly to a full student body attending? Several Friday Forwards are included in our portfolio we present to school administrations, etc. when the topic is relevant to discrimination. If cost prohibitive, could we do a video link to share with students?
Hi, Robert. I started a catered and event company 45 years ago. Over the course of those years, my husband and then our sons joined us. We became a family-owned business and celebrated our 40th year when we sold to a local restaurant group during Covid. Our sons decided to seek new careers and doing great. My husband and I took two years off to decide what we wanted to do with the rest of lives. Last year, at the ages of 75 and 74 respectively, we started a foundation called One Table Together. We bring together 80 high schools students with professional facilitators over a shared dinner that is prepared by the school culinary students (touching lives in another way) to discuss how, as a school community, they can build better relationships in their very diverse student body and create better communication with less discrimination, bullying and biases. We held our first one just this last week to rave reviews. Some of the students are now going to speak to the entire student body on what they learned and how they can work together to better their school. We certainly understand that one dinner will not change the course of generational discrimination, but it is a start and we will continue to work with this school as we collaborate with other organizations to provide follow up resources to engage students over and over.
For us, it took those two years to get over the loss of "purpose" to create a worthwhile program that will change generations. It will, in fact, give employers a better workforce that knows how to get along and work as a team. I absolutely felt the sense of loss, but we haven take those leadership skill we learned in owning our company to find a second purposeful life.
Regards,
Maxine Turner, Founder (retired) Cuisine Unlimited Catering & Special Events
Founder, One Table Together
Salt Lake City, Utah
maxine.tec@icloud.com
PS: Love your Leadership Minute & Friday Forward
Love this story, thanks for sharing!
Would it be possible for you to speak at a future assembly to a full student body attending? Several Friday Forwards are included in our portfolio we present to school administrations, etc. when the topic is relevant to discrimination. If cost prohibitive, could we do a video link to share with students?
I'd love to learn more. I asked Mick on my team to reach out to you via email, so keep an eye out for a note from him.