February 3, 2010

FTX Downtown 2 Wrap-Up
FTX #14
http://www.frenchtoastandhugs.com

66 loaves of freshly baked challah bred!
60 costco bins of blueberries!!
55 dozen eggs!!!
48 costco bins of strawberries!!!! (half of all they had at my local store)
34 cans of whipped cream (not enough, not even close!)
22 bottles of 100% pure maple syrup!!!!!
100 limited edition FTX pins & soundtracks!!!!!!
and over 1,300 pieces of french toast!!!!!!!

wow.

when i wrote that i was aiming for abundance at this FTX i wasn’t kidding! but the true abundance had absolutely nothing to do with anything i brought to FTX Downtown 2.

it was you.

back in 2003 when i first hit the dusty streets handing out fried bred and syrup i was lucky enough to have a few friends help me on my way. but more often than not people showed up to eat rather than to serve. and i have nothing against that! who wouldn’t want some tasty free french toast???? not many i found out. and that was just the way it was.

but word seems to have gotten out. because at this FTX i didn’t have the 10 to 15 helpers we had in 2009 at FTX Downtown 1 – we had at least 50!!!!

50 people who came to skid row to serve.

your actions humble me and give me faith in us all.

as always, after all the careful preparation, all i see at an FTX is my grill, some browning bred, the friends around me and the line stretched out in front of me.

but what i HEARD was music!!!!

arthur conley got it right when he asked “do you like good music!?”

music was bubbling up over behind me as the line began to sway and some people even began to dance! (my MOM at her second FTX was dancing even!!!!) i felt less and less of a separation between the servers and the served. what i felt and saw was a community. a community of friends, new and old, throwing down at the biggest street party in los angeles that day!!!!

so if you’ve got stories i’d love to hear them!
and if you’ve got photos i’d love to see them!!

please post any stories to our FTX blog. just scroll down to the bottom of the page found in this link and write away!

http://frenchtoastandhugs.com/?p=328

and if you have any pictures at all please email them to me or give me a shout on facebook and i can give you an email address to send them to. the higher the resolution the better since FTX 38 will use them at some point to make a slideshow of the day.

in case you couldn’t make it to FTX Downtown 2, the soundtrack is now streaming on our site and can be found here:

http://frenchtoastandhugs.com/?p=320

thanks everyone! i don’t know what FTX Downtown 3 will be like but i can’t wait to find out.
i do know that i’ll need a LOT more whipped cream! 🙂

shyam
FTX 1