Thankful

One of the metaphors I love to use when talking to people about IFT is the community table. It’s something everyone can relate to. IFT members live in more than 100 countries around the world. One of the things that we all share, no matter where we live, is the concept of coming together around a table, sharing food, our stories, our worries, and our joy with people we know and care about and those we want to know and understand better.

Where I live, November is an important month of gratitude as we celebrate the Thanksgiving holiday. There is a folklore that surrounds this holiday dealing with the original Thanksgiving meal when early European settlers in the Americas shared a meal with their indigenous counterparts. We know folklore and history are different things and that the truth is much more complicated. But the Thanksgiving tradition is nevertheless built upon the concept that those who sit down at the table together can make peace and find common ground in our humanness and our need for nourishment in its many forms.

At IFT, we have so much to be thankful for this year. The impact we, as a profession, have had on delivering a safe, nutritious, and sustainable food supply for everyone by advancing the science of food and its application across the global food system can be felt every day in communities around the world. We often take for granted that we are an institute of individual professionals, not companies or institutions, that come together for something greater, bringing about both individual benefit and greater good. For nearly 80 years, we have been self-governing, self-sustaining, and have pursued a strategy that endeavors to give each of us opportunity and all of us a voice. For this, we can all be thankful.

We should also be thankful for those that make our community thrive. For eight decades, the lifeblood of IFT has been the women and men who have given of their own time, energy, knowledge, and passion to pursue and advance the IFT mission. This is simply remarkable.

It’s bewildering to know where to begin to express our gratitude. However, allow me to share a few examples. We thank...

Olga Padilla-Zakour, professor and chair of the Dept. of Food Science at Cornell University, for recently volunteering on a jury for the IFT FoodTech Summit Innovation Award in Mexico City.

Gunnar Sigge, head of the Dept. of Food Science at Stellenbosch University in South Africa, for serving on the Annual Meeting Scientific Advisory Panel (AMSPAP) and having chaired the group in 2017.

Bruce Ferree, senior QA manager at H.P. Hood, for serving as a trustee to Feeding Tomorrow, the Foundation of IFT, and for raising more than $25,000 for the foundation by running 250 kilometers across the Atacama Desert in northern Chile.

C J Hoye, principal development scientist at Lamb Weston, for coordinating the programming for the IFT Lewis & Clark Section and for serving as next year’s section chair.

Hongda Chen, national program leader for bioprocess engineering and nanotechnology at the National Institute of Food and Agriculture, USDA, for his leadership on the IFT Nominations & Elections Committee.

Pius Mathi, QA manager at Technobrain Group in Nairobi, Kenya, for serving as a mentor to new professionals through the IFT Emerging Leaders Network.

Herbert Stone, the not-so-retired global expert in sensory science and past president of IFT, who has served the institute as a volunteer for decades, including currently as a scientific editor for the Journal of Food Science and as a key liaison to IFT’s partners in China.

Sam VanWees, PhD student at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, for serving on the Feeding Tomorrow K-12 Task Force.

And the list goes on, and on, and on. 

For each person I’ve mentioned, there are hundreds more professionals so dedicated to their profession and the significance of their work that they give freely of their time and energy to our IFT community, to make it better, stronger, and more capable of achieving its mission. They are driven by becoming accomplished professionals and mentoring others, providing our community with productive professional networks, creating space for innovation, and advocating for matters of importance to the global food system. They span age, experience, education, ethnicity, and interest, but they share one thing in common: the notion that their careers and our profession matter and that we can be better when we unite to help one another. And for this, I am thankful.

Wherever you are this November, and whatever your traditions for expressing gratitude and giving thanks, know that you’re not only welcome at the IFT table, but that it is your table. Together, IFT is what we make it. Have a seat and dig in.

Cindy Stewart, PhD, CFS
IFT President, 2017–2018
Global Cultures and Food Protection Technology & Innovation Leader, DuPont Nutrition & Health, Wilmington, Del.
[email protected]