Food journalists will tell you that it sometimes seems like their job amounts to not getting calls returned and failing to come up synonyms for words such as “salty.”
Yet at its core, reporting is just listening, regardless of the writer’s beat.
In other words, when subscribers who completed The Food Section’s latest survey said they didn’t think the newsletter’s price was too high, I heard them. And when most of them said they gave time or money to animal rescue, I heard that too—even though I wouldn’t have guessed as much in a million years.
I spent months trying to figure out what to do with the knowledge that The Food Section’s readers want to do right by critters. It didn’t make any sense to sneak pet profiles into a newsletter covering food and drink. And since I’m allergic to dogs, offhand references to the newsroom’s resident hound wouldn’t work either.
But with the holidays approaching, I realized the survey was a setup for a win-win-win scenario.
This is Judy. I don’t know Judy’s last name because she was the neighbor’s dog when I stayed at a riverside Airbnb near Florence, Alabama during the pandemic summer of 2020. Judy was the rare dog to whom I didn’t have an allergic reaction (I’ll spare you the science on this score, but there is no such thing as a hypoallergenic dog), so we became fast friends. Or maybe she was the fast friend: She consistently outpaced me on our morning runs.
As I was considering how to honor readers’ devotion to animals in need, I thought about Judy and our time together. And I suspect Judy might like where I landed:
Rather than offer a Black Friday discount this year, The Food Section is supporting Heart of Alabama: Save, Rescue, Adopt (HASRA), a no-kill shelter in Judy’s hometown. For every gift or new annual subscription purchased between now and the last day of Hanukkah—which falls on December 26, 2022—The Food Section will contribute $50 to HARSA.
Over the coming weeks, I’ll share more about HASRA and its boarders. But in the meantime, if you’re ready to support independent food journalism and the wellbeing of Southern dogs at the same time, I’ve created a printable card for gift-giving.
Your friends will thank you. Daide of HASRA will too.
Daide's face!
Judy’s last name is Booty so Gussie the Hussie and Judy Booty can be furiends.