there's always money in the banana stand: Labor Day: 'Bread and roses! Bread and roses!'

In honor of Labor Day, here's a background on the phrase "bread and roses." It's associated with the fight for fair wages for women, and in particular with a textile strike in 1912 in Massachusetts. The slogan comes from James Oppenheim's poem, where "bread and roses" refers to the call for both fair wages and dignified working conditions. It's pertinent as we think about labor and living wages today, but also as a background story to the name of the café I'm working in this year!

As we come marching, marching in the beauty of the day,
A million darkened kitchens, a thousand mill lofts gray,
Are touched with all the radiance that a sudden sun discloses,
For the people hear us singing: "Bread and roses! Bread and roses!"
As we come marching, marching, we battle too for men,
For they are women's children, and we mother them again.
Our lives shall not be sweated from birth until life closes;
Hearts starve as well as bodies; give us bread, but give us roses!
As we come marching, marching, unnumbered women dead
Go crying through our singing their ancient cry for bread.
Small art and love and beauty their drudging spirits knew.
Yes, it is bread we fight for -- but we fight for roses, too!
As we come marching, marching, we bring the greater days.
The rising of the women means the rising of the race.
No more the drudge and idler -- ten that toil where one reposes,
But a sharing of life's glories: Bread and roses! Bread and roses!

So even though Bread and Roses Café is not just for women, the roots of the phrase make it clear that, just as the fight for fair wages was about more than the need for money, feeding the hungry is about more than the food itself -- it's about treating each person with dignity. "Hearts starve as well as bodies..."

In L.A., we celebrated the long weekend with the other JVs in the Southwest region with a party and a day at the beach. Casa Maura Clarke also visited the Getty Villa in Malibu, which houses J. Paul Getty's collection of Greek and Italian art.